Clover in chamomile lawn

Question

I planted chamomile plugs 3 years ago. The first year the lawn was growing nicely. Summer 2016 clover from neighbouring building plots invaded the chamomile. I decided to leave it for the summer as the clover flowers were enjoyed by the bees and pulling out the roots without pulling out the chamomile roots was horrendous. In the autumn I hand weeded the clover out of the lawn as best I could.

This summer the clover was back again along with some grass weeds here and there. I planned to hand weed again in September but it has been wet almost continuously with lots of heavy rain. I have managed to do about 1 square metre but there is lots more and one patch is full of grass. The thought of using spot weed killer is crazy – thousands of clover leaves!

I’m wondering about simply pulling out what I can from the top ie not digging around for the roots and then mistakenly pulling out some of the chamomile roots which look much the same! Or lightly clipping the top when the nearby wild flower area gets strimmed (hardly any clover in there). It would mean each summer the clover has to start again but I would need to live with a clover/chamomile lawn!

I don’t wan’t to abandon the chamomile but I think it will be Christmas by the time I finish hand weeding and there will be some bare patches where I pulled the wrong roots.I would be SO grateful for any ideas!

Answer 1

This is a tough one. Clovers are relentless, and will spread quickly. Even if you did manage to pull the tops, they will likely regrow from underground tubers. These are actually legumes, much like peas and beans. These are a lot harder to get rid of. I’m afraid that it has progressed to a point of no return. The only option would be to Kill everything, and re-mediate the soil to make it usable for planting again. they can survive together, as this is common in nature. If you are ok with leaving it, then they will continue to grow side by side