Clover has got to be the proverbial dead horse that constantly gets beat, but here goes anyway. I have a small (approx .2 acre) spot in the woods that is pretty much naturally cleared (just grass) and wouldnt take much to finish. I had considered hitting it with roundup, discing, and then planting with clover for a low maintenance kill plot. I had planned to do all this next spring (too busy this year).

In discussing this with a farmer buddy, his response was this. " Why dont you just round up the area a couple times this summer so it is completely dead by fall, then just broadcast your seed at the end of growing season so it will come up next spring?" " It will work fine and you will also not stir up any weed seeds, and this is basicly what occurs in nature." He really didnt think I should even bother with a soil sample and said he would be surprised if I really needed any fertilizer either (our soil is pretty good here). I finally convinced him of why I wanted the soil sample.

This sounds easy enough but every time I read a response about No-Plow (I was going to use regular IWC clover) you hear guys respond " yeah they call it no-plow but you still need to work up the soil and bury the seed, etc, if you want it to grow well" . I would just ignore my farmer buddy but he is a one of the more successfull farmers around and does raise some alfalfa.

So will his plan work well enough if I do everything else with the soil sample, lime, fert, etc, and just skip the discing? I considered doing this, broadcasting the seed in the late fall, and overseeding again in the spring just as insurance. It would be worth the extra seed $$ to skip the trouble associated with discing or plowing the sod.

Thanks, Timber