Moss in my garden!

davido_labido

davido_labido

davido_labido

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Joined
17 Sep 2012
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Derby
Well, I'm sat outside and since we have had this house, the garden has been over run with moss. Well, half of it has.

I've done a little research and it's seems to be because of 2 things

1) poor drainage

2) lack of sun getting to the area.

It results in the area that is shadowed all day being just moss and it doesn't really look very appealing.

So far I've tried some evergreen 4 in 1 stuff on it, which has killed it down a bit, and I've raked a good pile out, but obviously it's not solving the problem, just removing it for a little while.

Any ideas how I can get more sunlight to the area? I can't move the fence panels and they are around 8ft.

Any ways to help drain? If poked it with a garden fork a few times, but it's not done too much, my dad's got a rotorvator for the farm I could borrow, but I have no idea what's under the lawn in a city house =/

Cheers for any help folks!
 
It's next to a wooden fence... Trust me, the thought has already crossed my mind, we have the big paraffin burners on the farm that we use to tackle thistles etc before we rotate the fields for grazing!
 
the_it_crowd_moss.jpg
 
I can't remember it's name but you want something that will aerate the lawn it's like a lawn mower but instead of spinning blades it's got hollow spikes that takes plugs of soil out of the lawn which you then brush sharp sand into to improve drainage.
 
Hmmmm, seems like it willloosen up the soil less than a mini rotavator would so I doubt I'd hit/break anything. I might have a look into it.

If I knew what was under the soil I'd be just re doing the whole lot, but no idea if it would work, I'm rubbish in the garden =(
 
I didn't even know there was grass seed for the shade. I've been trying with normal stuff with no results really. I think the main thing seems to be getting one of those proper stabby tools!
 
Depending how big your lawn is, you may need to hire machine powered aerator.

Also with over-seeding, you should be looking to dethatch (scarify) beforehand, as the seeds will have better contact with the soil to germinate. If not the grass seeds will just sit on top of the thatch and will probably dry out and die.
 
It's only a tiny garden tbh. Il take a look see what I can do! Hopefully I'll get it sorted. If not, might just hire some one with all the right stuff for a day to start it off, then keep on top of it after.
 
We had the same thing.

Half of our grass was always shaded by the house and never got any sunlight. It was all moss and totally devoid of any actual glass.

One night after work I decided to pull up all the grass and replace with the artificial stuff. Cost a small fortune, feels like grass, looks like PERFECT grass, no mowing, no weeding. It's brilliant.
 
I've got a similar problem down one side of my lawn, but i've got round it by using a hollow tine aerator, which was back breaking, getting some lawn sand and brushing that into the holes, then shady area lawn seed covered with some top soil. Lasted fairly well till winter, did the same the following spring and it's made a massive difference, think the sand in the holes has allowed some of the clay to stay apart so water can drain through.

I use evergreen 4 in 1 every 3 months on mine now during spring and summer and autumn it gets evergreens autumn treatment which does help keep the moss down and under control.

Be prepared to look at a fairly bare area for a while though while new grass grows through, and don't cut it too early!!
 
[Darkend]Viper;24394620 said:
I've got a similar problem down one side of my lawn, but i've got round it by using a hollow tine aerator, which was back breaking, getting some lawn sand and brushing that into the holes, then shady area lawn seed covered with some top soil. Lasted fairly well till winter, did the same the following spring and it's made a massive difference, think the sand in the holes has allowed some of the clay to stay apart so water can drain through.

I use evergreen 4 in 1 every 3 months on mine now during spring and summer and autumn it gets evergreens autumn treatment which does help keep the moss down and under control.

Be prepared to look at a fairly bare area for a while though while new grass grows through, and don't cut it too early!!
Click to expand...

I'm pretty much at the start of this journey, the moss is half dead and its still pretty difficult to rake out. Got a very heavy clay soil and poor drainage so need to use an aerator and brush sand in because its like a swamp in winter! Gets sunlight throughout the day apart from one small corner, so its definitely a drainage issue.
 
il have a crack at trying to sort it out, but i do like the idea of these fake lawns, no mowing, no weeding etc.

seems they are around 20 quid per m2 which isnt too bad for the size of our garden, but then again, i guess with fitting etc it will soon add up?
 
To kill off a lot of moss use sulphate of iron as apposed to an off the shelf product. Will turn the moss black in a day then scarify or rake it out. Then seed and dress the bare patches once everything has cleared up.
 
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