winter lawn treatment
Discussion
Hi all,
We recently moved into our current house and are busy sorting bits out. The lawn, south facing, is covered in moss. Is there anything I can do at thus time of year? I was going to put some Autumn feed down, rake and use a fork to improve aeration. Would this be ok or should I leave it until spring?
Thanks
We recently moved into our current house and are busy sorting bits out. The lawn, south facing, is covered in moss. Is there anything I can do at thus time of year? I was going to put some Autumn feed down, rake and use a fork to improve aeration. Would this be ok or should I leave it until spring?
Thanks
I'd think it's a bit too late in the year to do much. The grass won't do much growing now.
In any case, spreading lawn feed before raking would be very wasteful.
It can take a couple of years to produce a good grass lawn if there's a lot of moss; aerating, raking, seed sowing, levelling, feeding, weed & moss-killing ... And the timings have to be judged well. Spend some winter time reading up on it, checking your soil type and what weeds you have. I had one damp area, just outside the patio doors luckily, which faced North and only got a couple of hours of evening sunshine during June & July. After several years of treating the moss I gave up and built a patio there.
Attempting to produce the perfect green lawn is apparently peculiarly British; probably something to do with Drake and bowling greens.
In any case, spreading lawn feed before raking would be very wasteful.
It can take a couple of years to produce a good grass lawn if there's a lot of moss; aerating, raking, seed sowing, levelling, feeding, weed & moss-killing ... And the timings have to be judged well. Spend some winter time reading up on it, checking your soil type and what weeds you have. I had one damp area, just outside the patio doors luckily, which faced North and only got a couple of hours of evening sunshine during June & July. After several years of treating the moss I gave up and built a patio there.
Attempting to produce the perfect green lawn is apparently peculiarly British; probably something to do with Drake and bowling greens.
Hiya. First of all, if your lawn is 'mostly moss' as you say it is, be bloody careful what you put down on it.
To expand - I inherited a similar lawn, lots of moss, and put down 'feed and weed' - the idea of which is to feed the grass and kill the weeds. As moss is essentially weeds, after a week I am not joking - I had a back garden that was 90% dead, brown moss with the odd small patch of very green grass scattered around. After 2 weeks, the dead brown moss pretty much disappeared, so I had what you might describe as a huge square of earth with a few 'islands' of grass.
Basically, the garden was ruined.
I could have re-seeded the lawn I guess, but that would take a fair bit of time, so I just bit the bullet and re-turfed it. Actually wasn't so expensive to do so.
THEN I did a bit of reading up on the internet about nice lawns (better late than never!)
The general advice is to feed every 6 weeks or so during the summer, 'overseed' at the same time (basically get a packet of lawn seeds and keep spreading them over the lawn) and DON'T use a general weedkiller. Better to keep on top of the lawn by periodically (I do it once a week) walking round and just pulling up any of the little buggers by hand.
Since keeping to this little regime, I have now got an amazing lawn and am well happy with it
HTH
To expand - I inherited a similar lawn, lots of moss, and put down 'feed and weed' - the idea of which is to feed the grass and kill the weeds. As moss is essentially weeds, after a week I am not joking - I had a back garden that was 90% dead, brown moss with the odd small patch of very green grass scattered around. After 2 weeks, the dead brown moss pretty much disappeared, so I had what you might describe as a huge square of earth with a few 'islands' of grass.
Basically, the garden was ruined.
I could have re-seeded the lawn I guess, but that would take a fair bit of time, so I just bit the bullet and re-turfed it. Actually wasn't so expensive to do so.
THEN I did a bit of reading up on the internet about nice lawns (better late than never!)
The general advice is to feed every 6 weeks or so during the summer, 'overseed' at the same time (basically get a packet of lawn seeds and keep spreading them over the lawn) and DON'T use a general weedkiller. Better to keep on top of the lawn by periodically (I do it once a week) walking round and just pulling up any of the little buggers by hand.
Since keeping to this little regime, I have now got an amazing lawn and am well happy with it
HTH
Ray Luxury-Yacht said:
Hiya. First of all, if your lawn is 'mostly moss' as you say it is, be bloody careful what you put down on it.
To expand - I inherited a similar lawn, lots of moss, and put down 'feed and weed' - the idea of which is to feed the grass and kill the weeds. As moss is essentially weeds, after a week I am not joking - I had a back garden that was 90% dead, brown moss with the odd small patch of very green grass scattered around. After 2 weeks, the dead brown moss pretty much disappeared, so I had what you might describe as a huge square of earth with a few 'islands' of grass.
Basically, the garden was ruined
I think you've pretty much predicted what's going to happen when I remove the moss! To expand - I inherited a similar lawn, lots of moss, and put down 'feed and weed' - the idea of which is to feed the grass and kill the weeds. As moss is essentially weeds, after a week I am not joking - I had a back garden that was 90% dead, brown moss with the odd small patch of very green grass scattered around. After 2 weeks, the dead brown moss pretty much disappeared, so I had what you might describe as a huge square of earth with a few 'islands' of grass.
Basically, the garden was ruined
For minimal effort, Greenthumb. They come around 4 or 5 times a year, charge me peanuts and my lawn has no moss or weeds whereas it used to be a mix of moss and clover.
Ring your local franchise, they'll come and look, tell you what they want to do and what it'll cost. Don't like the price or them and it'll cost you nowt.
Ring your local franchise, they'll come and look, tell you what they want to do and what it'll cost. Don't like the price or them and it'll cost you nowt.
Have a look at www.lawnsmith.co.uk. I think you have left it too late for this year, but once the grass has started growing again in the spring, hire a scarifier, then overseed it - you'll have a muddy mess for about a month, but it will look great after.
B17NNS said:
That looks like an interesting read so I've ordered it 
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