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Message: [QUOTE="DirtMechanic, post: 237573, member: 5568"] I tried that this season. I loved the fact that ground backsplash was noticeably reduced by the secondary plants. And I did not buy clover. Just let it grow. Many plants are simply resistant to fungi that attack tomato for example. Brilliant function in that regard. I was straining my shoulders patting myself on the back. But at maturity, complications set in. Low level moisture, increase in insect pressure since hiding was enhanced, and like weeds, resources were consumed by non-target plants . Root competition. Next year I am going back to the fluffy mulch. Or straw. Depends on what is available these days. Were I to use clover as you seek to do, I would suggest letting it mature to seed, even across a season, before digging or planting. You need to help the clover establish, even if you are lucky enough to have it spread. Even then it won't feed much, but there are cooling and disease control benefits here at 33 lat. As to seaweed, it can be too expensive. If it is cheap then by all means go for it. It's just that it is best used in a certain way when it is expensive, that being as a source of growth regulating phyto-hormones and trace minerals and micro nutrients. The hormones are why it seems magical. We are well inland here and more likely to get algae problems from the freshwater plants that might be used locally. The golf courses suffer that fate when they pump stream water for example. [/QUOTE]