There’s barely a day goes past which doesn’t involve someone asking me about moss in their lawn – it seems there is little attraction in following the current fashion of having moss lawns which is sweeping gardens in cities.
Although moss has a role, and indeed is attractive, in the wider landscape in our lawns we definitely don’t love it.
The visual manifestation of moss is the end of a long chain of neglect (sorry!), and simply killing the moss is the same as painting over a damp wall – the conditions still exist for the dampness, you’ve just temporary hid the problem.
Killing moss is easy. An application of Sulphate of Iron will kill the moss, but then you’ll have to scarify or rake out the dead moss.
If all the raking doesn’t float your boat then look out for the Mo Bacter product in the garden centres, this product will kill the moss but instead of leaving it all black this product dries the moss out and then this is digested by the bacteria contained in Mo Bacter and in turn consumed by the lawn, giving the lawn a lush colour.
By killing the moss in either of these two ways you’ll temporary improve the situation, but to keep the lawn moss-free you will have to apply these products each and every year, which can be timely and expensive.
So after using any of the products mentioned it’s then best to treat the cause of the moss problem, the compaction and the acidity of the soil.
Apply some lime to the lawn now (preferably Calcium Carbonate or Ground Limestone) to ‘sweeten’ the soil and remove one of the conditions moss needs to do well.
In addition to this sweetening of the soil the removal of compaction in the top soil layer will further discourage moss from re-appearing and will improve grass growth without the need to apply any fertiliser.
Lawns become compacted simply as a result of the years of you walking up and down it with the lawnmower and the pounding the soil gets from the rain here in Donegal. So the process of relieving compaction should be something you perform every few years (depending on levels of wear this could be as little as every 5 years).
Hire a hollow-tine aerator from your local tool hire shop:
> Drive this over the lawn and this will remove small cores of soil form the grass layer
> Gather these up with the lawn mower
> Spread some shard sand over the lawn
> Brush this over to try to get as much sand into the core space as possible
> After all this apply some lawn feed to thicken the lawn.
This topdressing makes a great job of the lawn, and really encourages the grass to thicken and grow better AND will make your lawn more usable in the Spring and Autumn period.
