I love the idea. I have a bermuda lawn and as mentioned, bermuda is next to impossible to get rid of without roundup. I have one patch of white clover (which is incidentally in a spot which tends to be more moist) and it is thick, competing with the bermuda. My soil is awful, overall. I may try throwing around a bag of white clover seed in the existing lawn in other spots, and see what happens. On the other topic mentioned (thin poor soil with little organic matter) here is what I did. It is starting to work, after three years. The dog pen was mostly in the shade of oak trees. It had a little shade tolerant prairie grass, but that quickly got trampled. The large shady part of the pen (_huge_ pen with only two dogs; amazing how quickly they can ruin it) turned into a mudhole when rainy and "concrete" when dry. Tree roots were starting to get exposed from erosion. I started going to the free mulch place and getting truckloads of wood chips. I scattered them in the dog pen, starting with the muddy and eroded spots and going from there. Grass is starting to come back a little, and the wood chips keep the mud and erosion under control. They are starting to break down, and I keep adding more. I think eventually the soil will get back, not to its native "before dogs and humans" state.

I too have a small grass lawn and at one point it was filled with clovers and other weeds. It's base is mostly clay and topsoil. I tried the herbicide route before to no avail. They always returned. Unless you wish to kill your entire lawn by covering them up, there is no other solution but to dig them up. I have tried those weed clamps that do pull out small weeds effectively but not large and established ones. Let me tell you how I managed to do this. First I watered the lawn so the ground is wet and weeds are easily pulled out. Next, I took a shovel and sunk it just a short distance away from the weeds and digging down to just beneath the roots of the weeds and I rocked the soil a bit to futher loosen up the roots. At that point, the weeds are easily removed. And with regards to dandelions, make sure to remove all parts of the plant as these will regrow from its roots. Sure it took a few days to completely eliminate the yard, but it was well worth that effort. Plus by loosening up the soil, I also managed to aerate my lawn at the same time. My lawn now looks rich and lush. I still have the odd weed or two, but these are new weeds and this time, a hand trowel easily does the job. -now for the boulevard grass which sits on a rocky soil, this particular task is impossible. I hit rock hard earth and so digging is too difficult. So instead, I'm opting to remove the weeds by mass killing all the grass and weeds away. It takes maybe a couple of weeks to a month under completely black cover like thick newspaper layers. Once dead, i can reseed or resod the area. I prefer to reseed since we are close to fall and we can once again sow grass seeds.

Controlled burns can work, however you've got trees close by....and they can also create more problems with other weeds. Some seed simply need heat and or smoke to start germination.... Chemicals are not an option for me, personally around food. Your choices are slim right now - basically hand weed around the plants that are growing, and then mow the areas that don't have food directly in them (yet) if you can, is probably going to be the easiest. You will do fine, you will "get" this thing. Realize that it is simply going to take time, lots of time for you to manage this size of space. My thoughts now are to save what you can by doing what I mentioned above. In the fall, concentrate on a much smaller growing space. Lay cardboard down (it will take a LOT and if you can get free wood chips from tree trimmers, neighbors or anywhere, get them. Spread them on the cardboard and leave it all winter. Let it smother what is below. But for now it seems your ambitions were larger than the amount of time you'd like to dedicate to working in a garden. That is the balance you are going to have to figure out...what you offer the garden in maintenance vs. what you have. There are also spray options if you so choose to do that. You can mow an area now, spray it lightly with kill, leave it in the sun a few days-a week (most chemicals work with sunshine) and then go ahead and mulch REALLY heavily (especially with cardboard and wood chips). Next year plant sunflowers in that spot, the year after you can plant food. (sunflowers are used to clean up toxic areas). You will however always have to watch the area - weed killer is only going kill the current weeds, not the seeds for the next year (or from past years). MULCH will be your answer, and it will make some lovely soil too :)

I have just finished clearing multiflora rose and japanese honeysuckle from a south-facing slope. Today I raked the thick layer of oak and maple leaves so I could sow Dutch white clover in hopes of creating a more open meadow. But now I worry that the trees will cast too much shade for the clover to grow, and how will I deal with the yearly leaf fall? What is a better groundcover for this situation, one with minimal maintenance as it's a large area and not one that needs to be manicured. Thanks!