Viola’s grow wild here, they get 3-6" high, shallow roots and spread like crazy. They are in flower from the second the snows gone till they’re covered in snow come fall. Only way to get rid of them is dig them out.
Have read white clover is a good choice but slow to establish.
Wife’s been digging out viola’s from her flower garden(they take it over), so today I planted some in 20 3gal pots, by next spring the pots will be overflowing with them.
Wanted to ask thoughts about using the viola’s with the clover, thanks for your reply.
For orchard ground cover I prefer Crimsom clover if you want a taller cover than white clover. Either one would enrich your soil, white is more difficult to establish but after several years it grows up to a foot high. The Violas would likely be more aggressive making it difficult to get a good clover coverage. I would not mix Violas with clover as they would only take nutrients from fruit trees rather than provide as do clovers. Suggest you limit them to potted placements to help attract pollinators until your clover is well established. Ten years ago this was a Bing sweet cherry tree with weeds growing around it. I sowed it in white clover and spread wood chips around it beyond its perimeter. I have since topped worked it into 19 variety plum tree of which about 10 varieties of the grafts are old enough to produce fruit. As you can see it gets good pollination. Fruitload is high requiring many props to support grafts for a few years. Now I only need to water this tree once a week during dry spells. The woodchips and clover are an excellent combination since the nitrogen needed to break down the carbon in the woodchips is supplied by the atmosphere
Dennis
Kent, Wa
Isn’t the presence of a ground cover an invitation to mice and voles? I’ve worked hard over the past 2 years to replace grass and weeds with wood chips. The ground finally looks clean. And the hundreds of voles that used to next in the grass and eat the tree roots are now gone. Would planting clover just invite them back?
In some places I plant only Crimsom clover where I want it to reseed alone w/o others. Here I get a lot of spring moisture so it readily reseeds annually and keeps enriching the soil and providing very early flowers for my pollinators when white clover does not flower until May
Dennis
Any suggestions for an alternative to the viola’s? Just something to plant with the white clover in zone 3 that won’t or rarely require mowing; sheep fescue??
Finding lot’s of options, but once consider zone 3 max hardy the list get’s pretty small.
We currently keep the lanes bare dirt and hoe the weeds. Our soil is thin black with lot’s of vegetable matter and earthworms. Hit clay anywhere from 8" to 1.5’ down. Slight slope, well draining, good south exposure with heavy shelterbelt N, W and E sides. Av rainfall is probably 6-10"/yr, good snow cover through the coldest months.
Thanks again.
@ECSask I use common violet (Viola sororia) in my orchard alleys along with crimson clover and dutch white clover. They all play nicely and I think a multi-species cover offers a lot of advantages. The violets bloom first and they are an early source of nectar for bees. As the temps get hot the violet kind of disappears into the clover mix but shines again at the end of the season when the temps cool down. Just like you mentioned.
Crimson clover is larger and makes better biomass than white clover but it can’t take the heat as well as the white clover. So a mix of all 3 species works pretty well and there is good forage for bees all year.
Supposedly crimson clover interacts with mycorrhizal fungi and white clover doesn’t. So, having some crimson in the mix makes sense in an orchard setting where you ideally want to establish and build mycorrhizal fungi connections.
