A few nights before Christmas, about 10 p.m. I strapped on a headlamp, a chest seed spreader, and huge rain hat.

Striding through the pasture, I scattered half a pound of clover seed, the spreader clicking and the hat glowing scared our poor donkeys into a gallop. I’m not an insomniac, I just saw the rain coming and knew I better get the seed out. The whole time, I thought of warm, generous Linda Askey, an inspiring horticulturist from Alabama.

With long, quick strides and tiny seeds flicking my face, I thought of how an article she wrote years ago taught me to brave cold and wet for sake of sowing Spring ephemeral flowers. Poppies, tickseed, larkspur, toadflax, money plant, all the Easter basket color of Grand Momma’s thrifty flowers — they need to be sown in a cold drizzle of later fall.

Using Clover to Feed Other Plants

Crimson clover, a winter seed-in plant, brings back childhood memories. We spent many a Saint Patrick’s Day looking for four-leafed, crimson clover. Now I know it’s about as Irish as Lucky Charms. But it ties me to my parents, the farm where they raised us and pointed out names and beauties of plants. Clover is old school.

Not too long ago, all lawn mixes had low, spreading white clover included in them. The clover germinated easily and started pulling nitrogen from the air – a unique ability of the family of plants it is in. So the clover was in the lawn mix not for beauty, but to feed the tiny grass seedlings.

I’ve used white clover beautifully over naturalized daffodils and under groundcovers of asters in a few acre park I’ve worked on along the Savannah River. It’s pretty and it feeds the other plants. This is a really old idea, a farmer, a soil conservationist trick whose time has come again.

Perennials That Feed Themselves

I’m all into planting perennial borders, shrub and tree plantings that feed themselves. Earlier this morning, I put together a right-of-way plan for our hometown – red cedars, beech trees, and catalpa. This will be under planted with Crinum Lilies and Lespedeza. Just like clover, catalpa trees and lespedeza bushes can pull nitrogen out the air and feed other plants.

Now, I’m not saying this is the only fertilizer you’ll ever need — especially for a perennial border. Remember a border is an artifice– where were manipulating, showing off, tarting up. But old gardening ideas like this and new ones can work hand-in-hand.

Alternative Fertilizers

To be completely accurate, it’s not the pea family plants alone that do the work of making fertilizer. There must be present in the soil, a bacteria that moves into and lives in the roots. The two together pull nitrogen from the air, helping the plants grow. Some of the nitrogen is available to other plants too through the complex web of life that is in the soil. Farmers manipulate this relationship by inoculating seed with dried bacteria. You dont need to – its probably in the soil. But you can honor those old farmers and gardeners by keeping up this old trick – when you plant something in this family, find another thats already growing, get some of the dirt & duff from under it – and take it to your new plant – thats inoculation and its a nice reminder of the cycle of life.

Linda’s article of 20 something years ago has brought happiness to many of visitors to my gardens. And in combination with parents lessons of 40 years, its bring natural fertilizer to the fields of the farm where I grew up – now our specialty nursery.

Beautiful Plants in Pea Family:
Baptisia, Redbud, Mimosa, Lupine, Sweetpea, Wisteria, Coral Bean, Cassia. Dont forget to plant peanuts in your perennial border! Learn how to plant peanuts from the grocery store in my article in an upcoming issue of Organic Gardening!