A mossy lawn

Hello

Please allow me to introduce myself. I am a total novice gardener with a lawn issue.

I have a medium to large size lawn and it is heavily infested with moss, is boggy underfoot and patchy in places. My garden is south facing and gets lots of sun in the summer. My goal is to have the lawn like a snooker table.

Can anyone explain the process (an idiot guide if you will) to fix this problem as Greenthumb are too expensive and I am keen to have a go myself.

I have researched some mechanical scarifiers as the garden is probably too big to do by hand. However I just need some guidance on where to start with lawn treatments etc.

Many thanks

Paul

 

@ScousePaul Essentially you have to make the lawn less attractive for moss and more attractive to grass. Moss likes damp conditions and shade, how much sun does the lawn get outside summer? Also what type of soil have you got?
It sounds as if you might need to improve the drainage and light/ventilation over winter. Is your lawn level or is there a slope on it. Photos always help.

 

Hi thank you for the quick reply.

outside of winter only 50% of the garden gets decent sun. The garden backs onto a steep embankment then a railway line. As you can imagine the line is often overgrown with tall trees which shades this part of the garden. Network Rail have responsibility for these trees so they’re not trimmed often.

The garden is pretty flat and level and the best way I can describe the soil is sandy and crumbly if that makes sense.

 

@ScousePaul sorry you've not had more of a response most lawn questions are leapt on with enthusiasm. Although I know the basics my method of dealing with moss is to grow the grass longer so you can't see it.

 

My neighbour used MO Bacter a couple of year ago to rid his lawn of moss and recommended it to me.
I treated parts of my lawn last Spring where moss was growing and was surprised how well it worked.
No need to scarify/rake after either as the product breaks down the dead moss into nutrients for your grass.

I like @NigelJ solution too

 

Another fan of Mo Bactor here

 

We just scarified our lawn at the weekend. We hired a large petrol powered machine, but you can get small garden electric ones. It has a rotating shaft with stiff wires than spin and pull up the moss. We got five half ton bulk bags of moss out of our lawn. Ideally we do it once a year, but last year was so wet until the end of June, it never got done.

 

There are a few websites out there with moss removal guides that I had a read of last year as we had heavy moss, a couple below. I bought a kit from Relentless gardener and followed the guide. I took action on the rear lawn and didn't touch the front lawn as an experiment to see the difference. Although the back lawn doesn't look like a golfing green there is less moss for sure and I might have less to do this year to maintain it. Just got to repeat on front lawn now! My feeling is it will always be about managing it year on year rather than, treat it one year and never again. I was raking out the moss on a lawn about 30m2 with a springtine rake and it was hard work, but it's also very satisfying Much bigger and it would need something mechanical. I may try mo bactor next, based on what's been said here!
https://www.lawnsmith.co.uk/lawn-ca...l/moss-removal/?_gl=1*191hzm2*_up*MQ..*_gs*MQ..

How to get rid of moss in your lawn | Best Moss Killer Removal Treatment

 

Sorry, not wanting to hijack this post. Have you guys used iron sulphate as well? I've seen some mixed reviews of mo bacter, either singing its praises or it didn't do anything. Was thinking to give it a go but it's expensive compared to iron sulphate. I realise it's dual purpose so perhaps you save in not buying additional fertiliser..

 

No have only ever used the Mo Bactor @Mattyp It is expensive but we have only needed to use it twice in 9 years and haven’t used any other feeds/products

Edited to add : a big draw for us is that it’s organic

 

Twice in 9 years! Lucky you, that's the dream. I'm guessing you used the granules rather than the concentrate liquid? Like that the latter goes a little further in terms of area and maybe easier to distribute but seems to not last as long as a long term fertiliser.

 

We haven’t had to treat or do anything to the rear garden grass since the original two treatments (12 months apart so last one about 8 years ago). Our front lawn is nearly all moss but we are quite happy about that. It’s an attractive green and happily copes with our granddaughters running and ball games. We aren’t trying to eradicate it as the natural conditions are better for moss than grass - shade from trees, acidic soil and damp.

 

@Mattyp I have used iron sulphate in the past. It can work when used correctly but you need to keep it away from any paved areas as it stains them brown! It will need raking out, which is fine if you don't have a large lawn. I believe it is not good for the worm community.

 

Hi both, thanks for the feedback, i have ordered some. And that's a good point about not eradicating the moss, I had seen this as my aim but this is probably unlikely on our lawn that's north facing and damp. I also hadn't really considered the organic element which is always worth trying to use organic products where possible.