bob prohaska wrote:
Just for fun I'm trying to propagate alfalfa as a landscape
plant. There seem to be a few feral plants along roadsides
that can stay green well into summer with no irrigation.
The flowers aren't spectacular, but pleasant to look at.

The goal is a low -(ideally, -zero) water groundcover around the
house that also fixes nitrogen. Pollinator habitat is a plus.

Anybody else tried it?

i've used it as a green manure crop. it takes a few
years to get a decent sized plant established before
you would want to trim it. the stem part of the plant
is not pleasant to walk on so you wouldn't want this
as a lawn plant where you plan on walking barefoot.

i also used birdsfoot trefoil.

both are excellent green manure plants. can be
harvested a few times a season depending upon where
you are at.

downsides. both can drop a lot of seeds and the
trefoil is even more so able to spread those seeds
around.

i've been removing the trefoil as it just spreads
those seeds too much. instead i am now using a low
growing creeping thyme. takes more time to weed and
is not a green manure crop, but it works much better
as an edge plant.

i didn't transplant any alfalfa but planted from
seeds. with the deep roots that alfalfa can get it
wouldn't be that fun to transplant. just get a few
seeds and then grow them. i recommend using a
nursery crop (buckwheat) when spreading alfalfa for
a larger area. the buckwheat will help keep weeds
down and protect the alfalfa while it gets
established.

songbird