This is largely based on a newsletter from Beyond Pesticides which may be found here: https://beyondpesticides.org/dailynewsblog/2019/04/planting-clover-this-earth-day/
It, in turn relies upon and cites the following item: https://beyondpesticides.org/assets/media/documents/infoservices/pesticidesandyou/CloverCited.pdf
Neither seems readily susceptible to good qualify fair use abstraction, and neither is too long, so I highly recommend reading both, and definitely the first one. I will try to hit some major points.
Lawns weren't really a thing here until the 1860s and after. When they were promoted into being something they generally contained an admixture of white clover seed, and grew not as a pure green carpet, but speckled with white clover. This made sense, clover fixes nitrogen reducing or eliminating the need for fertilizers.
(That, of course, doesn't make sense if you wish to sell fertilizers, which is another story.)
Bees love clover. It feeds them. It also improves the soil and feeds other plants without using externally applied nitrogen. That should usually reduce nitrogen runoff which impairs water quality, creates hypoxia and dead zones and the like. But, clover is under attack and is being demonized.
We developed the herbicide 2,4,D during WWII to use as a weapon, but decided not to. It was then further developed and marketed for agriculture, killing "weeds" but not grains (grasses). The next step was to market it to homeowners, first as a stand along product, then as part of Scott's "Feed and Weed" fetilizer plus herbicide combo, and then as part of Scott's Turf Builder and similar products. Because it kills a vast spectrum of braodleaf plants, 2,4,D kills clover too. No problem. Even though it was once touted as a boon and even necessary to a good laws, a huge propaganda campaign was launched to decry, and classify it as a weed, using all the tricks available to top notch marketers and propagandists. So, we have traded a beneficial natural source of nitrogen, which also provides food for bees for poison, topical fertilizer with concommitant runoff, and profits for those peddling these types of products.
Plant clover. White clover, once hugely common, is far less so now. My local neighborhood hardware stores had none, but I found a one pount shaker-container at the nearest Home Depot for very little money. I immediately broadcast some in selected areas just before we went away at the end of April. I also found a packet of seeds of Crimson Clover at the local hardware store, which I plan on planting in a good location as soon as I figure out where. Meantime, I have to make sure to eschew all lawn and turf food products, especially Scott's so as not to kill any that comes up. (No problem for me, we don't use such and have no real lawn area anyway). I really think we need to figure out how to start a boycott of any and all Scott's products until they stoop selling 2,4,D to homeowners in any form and stop their war on clover.
The first article suggests sources for clover seeds, poppies and clover as a cover crop and
grass-microclover seed mixes for those who for some reason feel compelled to have lawns.
