A bush to pull things together

[Baymule]

Your yard is going to be pretty. We still don't have any landscaping to speak of. I do have a pile of native rocks which will go towards a flower bed across the entire front of the house/porch. Native rocks here means reddish iron ore dug out of the red dirt/clay. I don't have enough yet.

Off to the north end of the house is where I want to build a gazebo and a BBQ hut. Right now that area is being used by the sheep.

So my yard isn't really a yard, but it is on the someday list. LOL

Crimson clover is blooming now and it lines the roadways here. My husband loves crimson clover and he sowed seed in the fall. It is up and blooming now. Our driveway is lined with the beautiful dark red blooms and deep green of the clover.

 

[mystang89]

@Baymule that sounds beautiful. I had never heard of crimson clover before so I did a Google search for it and was awed. Right now we have purple dead nettle blooming in the corn field around here. The name sounds terrible and just seeing a single one out there isn't that impressive but seeing an entire field in it is really pretty. The closest thing we have to crimson clover is white clover but it hasn't started blooming yet.

 

[Baymule]

Back when Lyndon B. Johnson was President, 1963 to 1969, his wife went all out on planting wild flowers on the roadsides of Texas. How she pulled that off, I don't know, but she did. There is even a Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center.

https://www.wildflower.org/

Spring time is beautiful with all the wild flowers blooming. The state doesn't mow until the blooms set seed and die back. In central Texas, bluebonnets, the Texas state flower, are everywhere. There are fields of bluebonnets, they are breathtaking.

Our favorite is the Crimson Clover. It's just so pretty!

 

[Baymule]

I took some pictures of the Crimson Clover today @mystang89 for you to see.

 

[Bayleaf Meadows]

Another consideration- What is going to eat your plants? Deer? Goats? Rabbits? We have to think about all of those when we expect something to last more than a couple of weeks and not poison the livestock...

 

[mystang89]

That is gorgeous! I really wish we could have that here but I'm sure it's a lower states thing. Thanks for taking the time to catch a picture of that. Those sights are the reason I love spring so much.

 

[Baymule]

That is gorgeous! I really wish we could have that here but I'm sure it's a lower states thing. Thanks for taking the time to catch a picture of that. Those sights are the reason I love spring so much.

You are welcome. I love spring too, my favorite season. We have 5 Redbud trees on our property and they are so pretty in the spring. We want to plant some dogwoods too. I really want a Grancy Greybeard tree too. Grancy Greybeard trees stay small, like Redbuds do, maybe it would be a good landscape tree for you.

https://almostedenplants.com/shopping/products/10858-grancy-graybeard-white-fringe-tree-lace-tree/

 

[greybeard]

That is gorgeous! I really wish we could have that here but I'm sure it's a lower states thing. Thanks for taking the time to catch a picture of that. Those sights are the reason I love spring so much.

Crimson is an annual and a cool season clover. It's planted for the blooms and to add N to the soil for the next growing season. (Good in zones 1-8)
http://spotlightonstewardship.blogspot.com/2013/08/conservation-cover-one-mans-experience.html


In the upper midwest, it would be planted in summer for fall cover crop.
From Purdue Univ:
Name........................seeding dates........lbs seed per acre
Crimson clover July 15 - Aug. 1 20-30
It should grow in Indiana if you follow the advice below, but keep in mind what it is being used for..cover crop in cool seasons. :


Summer annual use. In general, plant as soon as all danger of frost is past. Spring sowing establishes crimson clover for a rotation with potatoes in Maine. In Michigan, researchers have successfully established crimson clover after short-season crops such as snap beans (229, 270).

In Northern corn fields, Michigan studies showed that crimson clover can be overseeded at final cultivation (layby) when corn is 16 to 24 inches tall. Crimson clover was overseeded at 15 lb./A in 20-inch bands between 30-inch rows using insecticide boxes and an air seeder. The clover established well and caused no corn yield loss (295).Crimson clover has proved to be more promising in this niche than black medic, red clover or annual ryegrass, averaging 1,500 lb. DM/A and more than 50 lb. N/A (270).

In Maine, spring-seeded crimson clover can yield 4,000 to 5,000 lb. DM/A by July, adding 80 lb. N/A for fall vegetables. Mid-July seedings have yielded 5,500 lb./A of weed-suppressing biomass by late October. Summer-annual use is planned with the expectation of winterkill. It sometimes survives the winter even in southern Michigan (270), however, so northern experimenters should maintain a spring-kill option if icy winds and heaving don’t do the job.

 

[mystang89]

@greybeard I might replace the soy in my garden with the clover then. I don't have a huge garden by any stretch of the word but I do have a few different plots I rotate out, one of them being corn. I just might end up replacing the soy with clover. Another good aspect of the clover is that when it blooms, the bees have much pollen. The honey made from Clover actually takes the beneficial qualities of that clover and it actually affects the taste of the honey!

 

[Baymule]

https://www.easttexasseedcompany.com/shopping/index.php?category=Clover