moss on the lawn

Author
Discussion

petemurphy

Original Poster:

10,108 posts

182 months

Wednesday 29th January 2014
quotequote all
Hi,

Just moved house and the lawn looks very green but has a lot of moss.

How should I go about getting rid of it - having a quick peep in homebase etc all the lawn moss killing stuff says to do it from april.

can i do anything now eg rake it etc or am i best leaving it till april and just using some killer?

any rec which one if so?

thanks

Dr Mike Oxgreen

4,101 posts

164 months

Wednesday 29th January 2014
quotequote all
Wait until spring, then apply one of the combined feed/weed/mosskiller products, preferably using a drop-spreader. Then wait for it to take effect, and when the moss has turned black and dried, then rake it out. Continue to feed your lawn once or twice more during the summer.

If you're planning to be really keen about your lawn then ultimately you want to work out why your lawn got overpowered by the moss. There must be something that is favouring the moss - work out what that is and fix it, and you'll never have moss again.

Off the top of my head, two things that spring to mind are shade and compaction. There's often not a lot you can do about the former, apart from sowing some shade-tolerant grass seed. For compaction, you might want to rent a hollow-tine aerator in September - and also rent a scarifier while you're at it.

steveo3002

10,493 posts

173 months

Wednesday 29th January 2014
quotequote all
i got an used elec lawn raker from ebay for £10 , cracking little machine gets bag fulls of moss and bits out the lawn , id suggest you look around for one before they get popular in the spring

Kapenta

1,591 posts

195 months

Wednesday 29th January 2014
quotequote all
Have the pH of your soil checked (take 6" deep plugs from at least half a dozen locations across different areas of your lawn). Highly acidic soils can also encourage moss growth.

petemurphy

Original Poster:

10,108 posts

182 months

Thursday 30th January 2014
quotequote all
cool thanks chaps

OscarIndia

1,126 posts

171 months

Thursday 30th January 2014
quotequote all
I used MoBacter on one of my lawns and scarified another and just mowed another for a test.
All lawns are getting MoBacter next year!
It doesn't turn the lawn black and essentially eats the moss. Brilliant stuff.

petemurphy

Original Poster:

10,108 posts

182 months

Thursday 30th January 2014
quotequote all
OscarIndia said:
I used MoBacter on one of my lawns and scarified another and just mowed another for a test.
All lawns are getting MoBacter next year!
It doesn't turn the lawn black and essentially eats the moss. Brilliant stuff.
cool will google it!

petemurphy

Original Poster:

10,108 posts

182 months

Thursday 30th January 2014
quotequote all
looks great as its organic and less harsh chemicals the better!

Craikeybaby

10,369 posts

224 months

Monday 3rd February 2014
quotequote all
I hired an electric lawnscarifier and raked up all the moss. The lawn looked a mess for a few weeks, but was great afterwards.

petemurphy

Original Poster:

10,108 posts

182 months

Thursday 6th February 2014
quotequote all
anyone used greenthumb service my dad uses it says its £5 a month and they treat it 4 times a year? any good if so?

Steve Campbell

2,110 posts

167 months

Thursday 6th February 2014
quotequote all
When the moss killer has got to work and you've scarified it all away...expect to think "oh my god, what have I done" ..if you have a lot of moss...you'll end up with a "lawn" that looks like a flat version of the Somme...with whispy bits of grass here and there ! You will need to re-seed. Once the seed has taken though, it'll look great.

OtherBusiness

838 posts

141 months

Thursday 6th February 2014
quotequote all
petemurphy said:
anyone used greenthumb service my dad uses it says its £5 a month and they treat it 4 times a year? any good if so?
I use them, very good. No weeds and good grass. Unfortunately the lawn has just this month been attacked by leatherjackets so has been ruined. Greenthumb are going to sort it by treating it to kill the leatherjackets, then a lawn renovation - basically really deep scarify, aerate, reseed and top dress. Annoying as it was looking good till these leatherjackets decided to eat all the grass!

NPI

1,310 posts

123 months

Thursday 6th February 2014
quotequote all
OtherBusiness said:
petemurphy said:
anyone used greenthumb service my dad uses it says its £5 a month and they treat it 4 times a year? any good if so?
I use them, very good. No weeds and good grass. Unfortunately the lawn has just this month been attacked by leatherjackets so has been ruined. Greenthumb are going to sort it by treating it to kill the leatherjackets, then a lawn renovation - basically really deep scarify, aerate, reseed and top dress. Annoying as it was looking good till these leatherjackets decided to eat all the grass!
They're not going to all that as part of the £5/mth are they?

OtherBusiness

838 posts

141 months

Thursday 6th February 2014
quotequote all
Unfortunately not! £30 to get rid of the leatherjackets and then the lawn renovation is £200. Cheaper than getting it turfed of course, and saves me the hassle of doing it.

NPI

1,310 posts

123 months

Thursday 6th February 2014
quotequote all
OtherBusiness said:
Unfortunately not! £30 to get rid of the leatherjackets and then the lawn renovation is £200. Cheaper than getting it turfed of course, and saves me the hassle of doing it.
I thought so - they came around to my house and led with the "fiver a month" or whatever it was, but started on about all sorts of stuff that was getting completely out of hand. I got some stick from the missus - it's the NE facing front that's bad. I'm thinking of astroturf but someone will probably nick it!

OtherBusiness

838 posts

141 months

Friday 7th February 2014
quotequote all
I pay £15 per quarter all in, for 4 treatments. I scarify it myself. Was all good until this infestation!

Dr Mike Oxgreen

4,101 posts

164 months

Friday 7th February 2014
quotequote all
OtherBusiness said:
Unfortunately the lawn has just this month been attacked by leatherjackets so has been ruined.
What were the symptoms, just so I know what to look out for?

OtherBusiness

838 posts

141 months

Friday 7th February 2014
quotequote all
Basically the lawn just started dying, really quickly. Early Jan it was fine. 2 weeks later, large brown patches started appearing and then nothing left by the end of Jan. Mostly mud at the moment for half the lawn (as they spread). Few links below.

http://www.lawnsmith.co.uk/novice/pests-diseases-o...
http://www.rolawndirect.co.uk/turf_pest_and_diseas...
http://www.gardenersworld.com/how-to/problems/lawn...


netherfield

2,668 posts

183 months

Friday 7th February 2014
quotequote all
Dr Mike Oxgreen said:
OtherBusiness said:
Unfortunately the lawn has just this month been attacked by leatherjackets so has been ruined.
What were the symptoms, just so I know what to look out for?
An abundance of Daddy-Long-Legs is an indicator of Leatherjackets.

Busa mav

2,556 posts

153 months

Friday 7th February 2014
quotequote all
Whilst I liked the way our lawn looked when Greenthumb were tending to it ,
I drew the line when the treatments got to £ 160 a time !