Someone asked about ground coverage for fig trees before.
I just want to share what I've done.
I grow White Dutch Clover as ground coverage. It eliminate most of the weed, fix nitrogen to fertilize the soil. In the beginning, I still have to hand remove some remaining weeds. Once it established. It's maintenance free. I didn't use mower for an entire year! So, no fertilizer and no herbicide. Just need to catch groundhog once a while. Also some pictures of my tomato, egg plant, cantaloupe, basil, and of course fig trees in my yard.

Very nice, thanks for sharing.

Best,
Tam

That's very pretty! Wish I could do something like that but I'm terrified to death of sneaky-snakes and I need to see if anything is slithering around where I'm walking. It's one of the hazards of living in the Ole South. :(

How do you keep the grass out?
Does clover grown that thick really choke out grass?
How did you start the clover and get rid of any grass at the start?

This yard was originally full of all kind of weeds, especially crab grass. So when I first seed the clover this spring, I have to remove weeds by hand in the first few months. Once it established, I seldom see other weeds. I expect it will be even better since there is no weed seed from this year to germinate.

I like that clover growing between.  I wish I could get rid of Burmuda grass,  I'd like to try clover or some type of non-grass ground cover..  I live semi-rural area but I dont see any veg gardens and very rarely a fruit tree, but all summer neighbors mow grass, and mow grass,  and mow grass.
Aren't you glad you have food growing in place of grass?   How about one of those signs >   "grow food, not grass"

You know what, 3 neighbor surrounding my property always complaint about my yard. They filed complaint many times to the town saying that I have overgrown grass and garbage (compost). They even chop off the sponge melon and tomato that cling on the fence. They yelled at me saying my yard is eye sore, and told me to move to a country side. Then they complaint their dog got flea since I moved in 3 yrs ago. Their yard have groundhog, and they can smell skunk. blah blah blah.

:)  That's why I live in the country...don't have to deal with the complainers.  Your place looks pretty good to me Jimmy, not boring and near useless like your neighbor's lawns.

Maybe your neighbors would be happier living in a condo?

very interesting idea! It looks pretty good to me too.

I'm lucky my neighbors think my gardening and fruit trees are cool....I still have grass in front which I mowed into a crosshatch pattern once...they have gotten used to my weirdness.

We've always had veg gardens and the accumulated gardening supplies.  A visual trick on the neighbors is keeping garden things in uniform arrangements and straight rows, because those people go all day from, carpet to tile, to cement to asphalt etc. and never touch anything natural, and they like it that way.  Personally, I feel they're deprived, by never knowing their own figs and tomatoes. 
Happy gardening to you.
  Soni

My neighbor don't have lawn at all. First of all, the town ordinance require less than 50% non-penetration coverage with 10 ft setback from property line in the side and 15 ft in the front and back. They all get variance to overbuild. Their setback is 3-5 ft from the side, and their house all cover more than 50%. In addition, one paved the whole backyard for parking (front setback is only 5 ft), put gravel in non paved area. One put a two story patio in the back and a large pool, cover everything else with mulch. The last one have the entire backyard cover with plastic lawn and fake flower basket. None of them ever need to mow. When I moved in, they complaint the over grown bushes, I cut them down. When I build the paver walkway and move dirt around, they call police. When I cut down a large tree, they now ask to pass a bill in town to require a permit to do so. When I try to build a garage and need variance for the size to accomdate two cars, they showed up and against the project. So I have to spend a lot extra to redisign the drawing, and build the house in an odd shape.
I believe the reason they keep against me is majorly racial discrimination. In addition, my lot is the largest in the neighborhood with large lawn and trees versus most of them have very small patch of grass if any and fenced. All neighbor have been using my yard as bathroom when they walk their dogs. I stepped on dog pooh everyday in the first year!
Now I am building garage, which will block one neighbor's view to NYC. The new garage will have a curve cut to the street adjacent to the other neighbor who always have party and their visitors park in front of my yard. They can't do so once I have a new driveway.
Anyway, I am doing everything legal. So I just ignore their nonsense now. They don't like bamboo, now I grow bamboo. They don't like compost, I now have 6 composit bin in yard. They chop down my sponge melon and tomato on my fence, next year I will build trellis.

I certainly don't miss living in that part of the country, people get so testy there. AZ in some developments are ever worse.... I like living in the south, people are just more mellow.

Wait, so everyone I meet on the interwebz isn't a pasty middle aged working class white male like me?

You people should have to wear a sign, so's I don't accidently rub elbows with the wrong sorts.  I had no idea my Bronx White came from a, what, a Frenchman?  Lebanese?  Eskimo?  Hard to tell with that name, with "Jimmy" thrown in to add to the confusion. Why, I can't even figure out exactly why I'm entitled to feel superior to you, you inconsiderate (fill in appropriate insensitive derogatory ethnic slur here).

And then you go and take a perfectly plastic neighborhood and ruin the astroturf motif.  You got some nerve. 

Who'da thunk Joyzee would make the deep south look tolerant? Good fences make good neighbors!!

Stay green

Best thing I ever did was install a 6ft privacy fence!

Jimmy, I'd be tempted to place an "art piece" in the middle of my garden that resembles a giant hand sporting the middle finger so they all could get a good look at it every time they walk in the back yard!

I'd do just what you're doing Jimmy. Don't let narrow minded neighbors put a damper on your enjoyment.

Like sting said
"It takes a man to suffer ignorance and smile"

You should grow some nice blackberries next to your fence and see how they try to cut it down.  I feel very lucky, most of my neighbors all are retired Portuguese and Italians who love to have the fresh vegetables so everyone has a garden, my neighbor grows a zucchini on the fence, first year he didn't ask (he has done it for more than 10 years) second year he did and I laughed when he asked and told him it's the fence, anything he wants to grow on it he doesn't need to ask, plus we get free zucchinis.  One neighbor apologized for his leaves blowing into my yard in the fall and was surprised when I said I didn't care it's a tree he can't control it and I just mow over them anyways.

For me this was surprising, where I lived before my landlord purposely build up a cover on the balcony so I couldn't grow plants and laughed asking if I could grow plants without light.  I then planted African daisies along the outside as my token of appreciation to him.  My point is, sometimes you luck out with great neighbours and if not, well too bad for them, they will get tired of screwing with you when they find out it doesn't make you upset and you're not putting any effort towards them.  Beautiful garden by the way, I like the clover a lot I have been thinking about doing the same because I hate cutting grass, how tall does it get?

Thank you all for the comments. We are the same kind of person who like green and organic garden. I try to do my best to be environment friendly, I recyceled all organic material for compost. I have solar panel on roof top. I drive plug-in hybrid car.
Clover don't grow tall, about 6 inch. The only hard work is in the beginning, because other weed seed still exist. You need to water often, and remove weed. Once it establish, it's so dense, the weed can't grow. As you can see in my picture, it's purely green clover now. I seeded this spring, and removed weed in the first couple months. Then do nothing. The only problem is groundhog really love them. I caught 5 this year.

Your clover looks really pretty Jimmy:)

Fantastic information. I was wondering the same thing about ground cover for weed control.  Thanks for sharing.

Good information, Jimmy and thanks for sharing.

Best,
Tam