Author Topic: Serious moss issue.  (Read 7592 times)

Serious moss issue.
« on: 09 May, 2016, 04:56:53 pm »


We have bought a cottage which has been used for family holidays for many years. The lawn is best described as 80%+ moss and the odd blade of grass.

The area is probably  100m squared.

Having been doing some research we came across this product which implies no scarifying. As we are currently some 230 miles from the property we are doing long distance gardening when we can pop up there.

Mo Bacter is the stuff and whilst hoping it might be the magic answer we would like to know if it really works!

any help appreciated.

PH
Bees do nothing invariably.

Pancho

  • لَا أَعْبُدُ مَا تَعْبُدُونَ
Re: Serious moss issue.
« Reply #1 on: 09 May, 2016, 05:05:04 pm »
You will spend years raking, scarifying, adding chemicals. You will still have moss. Then you will repeat the years of raking, scarifying, etc. Eventually, you will decide "Fuck it. The moss is greener than the grass. And softer" and then you'll go to the pub and be happy.

Re: Serious moss issue.
« Reply #2 on: 09 May, 2016, 05:12:23 pm »
Pancho's right.  It is fairly easy to kill all the moss using lawn sand or sulphate of iron (lawn sand is sulphate of iron plus sand) but unless you correct the conditions the moss will just come back.  Moss likes damp so you need to ensure that the lawn is well drained, waterlogged ground will just grow moss.  So drainage perhaps, aerate the lawn, lots of top dressing with coarse loam and so on.  Then take Pancho's pub option.  As an aside I once asked a golf course green keeper why I couldn't get my lawn to look like one of his greens.  his reply was "you can, just mow the grass every day, scarify at least once a month, aerate a couple of times or more a year, top dress every autumn and use lots and lots of chemicals, plus make sure it is watered every day, but don't let it get too wet.  And don't think about going away on holiday."

Ruthie

  • Her Majester
Re: Serious moss issue.
« Reply #3 on: 09 May, 2016, 05:52:41 pm »
Why would you want a picture lawn?  Moss is really rather attractive anyway, and it really is soft underfoot.

We had a mossy lawn in our last marital home, and we took the pub option eventually.  It was a good decision.
Milk please, no sugar.

Re: Serious moss issue.
« Reply #4 on: 09 May, 2016, 06:10:07 pm »
There is no pub for a start.

We just find the moss unslightly. The ground appears to be pretty free draining. We suspect it may be acidity and neglect as much as anything.

Has anyone experience with the product no bactor?

PH
Bees do nothing invariably.

Re: Serious moss issue.
« Reply #5 on: 10 May, 2016, 08:42:11 am »
I`ve considered trying remove moss for our lawn but have come to conclusion that the resultant bare patches will be far more unsightly than moss itself. Situation is damp and shaded so it would be a losing battle anyway. As for soil acidity unless your moss is other than Rhytidiadelphus squarrosus (springy turf moss ) acidity changes won`t help.

Rejoice in its English name and enjoy it  :thumbsup:

From Wikipedia

"It tolerates a wide variety of soil conditions, from calcareous grassland to acid heaths. It grows most conspicuously in heavily grazed pastures and on the regularly mown fairways on golf courses and is the most common moss found in lawns in the United Kingdom. "
....after the `tarte de pommes`, and  fortified by a couple of shots of limoncellos,  I flew up the Col de Bavella whilst thunderstorms rolled around the peaks above

rogerzilla

  • When n+1 gets out of hand
Re: Serious moss issue.
« Reply #6 on: 11 May, 2016, 07:44:38 pm »
I had moss in the front lawn when I moved in.  It never came back after an application of weed/feed moss killer.  You do have to look after the lawn in a basic manner though - I cut it at least once a week in the growing season and it isn't shaded by trees or hedges.
Hard work sometimes pays off in the end, but laziness ALWAYS pays off NOW.

Re: Serious moss issue.
« Reply #7 on: 09 June, 2016, 09:59:28 am »
I think the main solution is to cut the grass short and keep it short. Moss won't grown on dry soil. If you can't be there every week to mow, ask around if some local kid can pop round and mow it for beer tokens.
<i>Marmite slave</i>

fruitcake

  • some kind of fruitcake
Re: Serious moss issue.
« Reply #8 on: 09 June, 2016, 11:48:11 am »
The Japanese cultivate the stuff.

https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=japanese+moss+gardens

So you could just pretend the lawn is meant to be like that.

Sorry, I have no real solutions.

Lawn - to weed and feed or not?
« Reply #9 on: 26 April, 2017, 03:17:33 pm »
I am not a gardener. Mrs Pcolbeck has green fingers and loves the shrubs and herbaceous borders but is not up on lawns. I am a fettler of lawn mowers and strimmers, digger of holes, erector of fences and mower of lawns, of the lore of growing stuff I have no clue.
We have three lawns two of which look like 90% moss to me and the other one is a mixture of grass, clover, moss and other weeds.
I am in a dilemma as to weather using some kind of weed and feed type product on the lawns would reduce the weed content and result in better looking lawn or simply result in as scale model of The Somme. Mrs Pcolbeck would be very displeased if the current green but weedy lawns were replaced with large brown muddy areas.
What do the panel think?
I think you'll find it's a bit more complicated than that.

PaulF

  • "World's Scariest Barman"
  • It's only impossible if you stop to think about it
Re: Lawn - to weed and fee or not?
« Reply #10 on: 26 April, 2017, 03:23:11 pm »
If you can wait a few weeks I can let you know :)

I'm a similar type of gardener to you, I do the heavy lifting. I did a major scarify of my lawn about a month ago which removed about 2" depth of moss! At the moment it looks pretty desolate but I'm assured by people more knowledgeable than me that it will "soon recover".

It hasn't rained properly since I did it but I'm assured that it will show signs of recovery once it does

Re: Lawn - to weed and fee or not?
« Reply #11 on: 26 April, 2017, 03:39:21 pm »
Despite what the packaging will have you believe the "feed and weed" stuff won't make all the moss and weeds disappear overnight, or even next month so the lawn won't just turn into a sea of mud.  BUT if you put too much on it will get half way there, so only use what they say.  It is not a miracle cure either, you will need to rake out the dead moss - and do not under-estimate this task!  It takes ages with a hand rake to get most (but not all) of the moss out and then you will either need a huge skip to dispose of it in or you spend the next four weeks trying to distribute it amongst the neighbours bins once it has got dark (I don't use a skip).  The "feed" bit will make the grass grow a bit faster to compensate for the loss of other green cover, but that can just make the disposal problem worse, especially if it then rains a bit as you can actually see it growing.

Do be aware that this is a slippery slope!  Each application reduces the moss and weeds a bit but you always want more.  Moss is really a symptom of poor conditions, especially drainage so then you will want to aerate the lawn, scarify and top dress, and pretty soon you'll be mixing up your own lawn sand using a secret formula you've found on the internet.  This all uses up valuable pedalling time.

Re: Lawn - to weed and feed or not?
« Reply #12 on: 26 April, 2017, 04:32:53 pm »
Agree with everything li'l Jim has said. Also, don't forget to aerate the lawn areas. To help the grass grow you could
over-sow it with grass seed (dead cheap from Wilkinsons. You will probably need topsoil to be it in. I also use chicken
manure pellets from Asda which helps the soil (work for my lawn).

Kim

  • Timelord
    • Fediverse
Re: Lawn - to weed and feed or not?
« Reply #13 on: 26 April, 2017, 08:07:00 pm »
IMHO the best approach to lawn care is to go for a bike ride.

Manotea

  • Where there is doubt...
Re: Lawn - to weed and feed or not?
« Reply #14 on: 26 April, 2017, 08:21:11 pm »
I made the mistake of raking out all the moss in my lawn a couple of years back, first with a manual rake then an electric one... happily the moss has now all regrown and we have a sea of green out the back once more...

I might have another go this autumn biut as De Sisti says, raking out the moss is but the start...

Re: Serious moss issue.
« Reply #15 on: 19 April, 2018, 10:00:21 am »
I never got around to doing anything last year but yesterday I bought and electric scarifier / aerator from Lidl (so cheap it would have been rude not to).
This weekend I will attack the moss ! I will even go and buy some weed and feed to chuck on afterwards.
I think you'll find it's a bit more complicated than that.

ElyDave

  • Royal and Ancient Polar Bear Society member 263583
Re: Serious moss issue.
« Reply #16 on: 19 April, 2018, 01:03:55 pm »
Ours is currently undergoing replacement for exactly that reason, combination of compaction, moss, weeds, anthills.

Its a case of rotavate, level, turf and then maintain. The problem was two very dry summers that hit the grass hard, followed by a couple of wet years that allowed the moss back in.
“Procrastination is the thief of time, collar him.” –Charles Dickens

Re: Serious moss issue.
« Reply #17 on: 19 April, 2018, 01:22:56 pm »
IMHO the best approach to lawn care is to go for a bike ride.
This. It is very obvious, in our garden, that the moss-free area is the route from back door to bike shed. I try to vary my exact path to spread the effect (and the general wear to the grass). I have no idea whether this relates to any principle that a gardener would recognise.

Sent from my Moto G 2014 using Tapatalk


Re: Serious moss issue.
« Reply #18 on: 23 April, 2018, 10:07:58 am »
Well that was enlightening. Ran over the lawns with the spring tine type attachment and filled half a wheelie bin with what it pulled out. Then used the other cartridge which was like knife blades. Blimey the lawn looked like a hay meadow that had just been cut circa 1900 before bailers were invented. Used the rotary mower to hoover it all up and just managed to cram the moss and other bits or dead rubbish it had pulled up into the reemi9aning one and a half wheelie bins.

I'm quite impressed with how a cheepie Lidl electric tool performed. If it only works one more time its cost the same as hiring a scarifier.

Now al I have to do is feed the lawn and hopefully it will look better this year.
I think you'll find it's a bit more complicated than that.

Cudzoziemiec

  • Ride adventurously and stop for a brew.
Re: Serious moss issue.
« Reply #19 on: 23 April, 2018, 12:35:43 pm »
Pancho's still right on this.
Riding a concrete path through the nebulous and chaotic future.

Gus

  • Loosing weight stone by stone
    • We will return
Re: Serious moss issue.
« Reply #20 on: 23 April, 2018, 12:44:59 pm »
Try add lime and fertilizer to the lawn, if pH is to low moss will grow better than grass.

A raised pH and fertile soil are what the grass want and the moss dislike.

ElyDave

  • Royal and Ancient Polar Bear Society member 263583
Re: Serious moss issue.
« Reply #21 on: 23 April, 2018, 01:52:45 pm »
on my bonsai, on the other hand, I carefully replaced the moss back in the pot of the tree I repotted at the weekend.
“Procrastination is the thief of time, collar him.” –Charles Dickens