iI don't want a bowling green a decent lawn would do

A few years ago we had an infestation of leather -jackets and all that it brings. We have used that company with coloured thumbs and it seems to be eradicated. The lawn wasn't great so we had them kill moss and weeds two years ago followed by scarifying. Last year we had them aerate the lawn. This year we are back to having large patches of moss and we are advised to have it treated followed by scarifying. Seems familiar. Surely this shouldn't need done every couple of years. It's a fair size garden and it's not cheap to have these treatments repeated quite so often. Can anyone please advise me what I really should be doing. By the way, my house was built in1928 so I would imagine that it's fairly tightly packed soil.

David

 

The moss has probably returned because the conditions are just right for it and probably not ideal for grass. Sometimes its better to be proactive rather than reactive. Try to determine what is going on and put it right, that way hopefully you will keep the moss at bay.Below I have listed some common causes, use it as a kind of checklist to try and determine what is going on.

Shady areas
Poor drainage
Cold compacted areas with no air circulation
Poor mowing practises such as scalping, infrequent mowing
Damaged/compacted areas due to foot traffic
Improper use of fertilisers

There are more but these are the main ones

 

Next time you get rid of the moss, put a coating of sharp sand over the top. Not enough to smother the grass, but enough to make a layer on top of the soil but so that the grass shows through. This will help aeration and drainage, helping to make it inhospitable to moss, which likes a damp surface.

Get rid of the moss by raking brutally. I did this on my moss infested front lawn a couple months ago, and I saved the lawn at my last house the same way. This time though (my new front lawn) I raked first to get some of the moss out. Then I put grit sand down, then I raked again. Loads (and I mean loads) of moss came out with very little effort. I think the grit was grinding it out as I raked. It looked awful at first, with sparse looking grass and lots of grit, but now the grass is coming on lovely. Trouble is so are the dandelions, but that's another story.

 

All thumbs,

Once you have scarified the lawn here are three simple things you can do to help keep the moss at bay in supplement to all the good things your seem to be doing already. The overall aim of all of these is to promote a thick, lush grass that naturally keeps the moss and weeds at bay...

Aerate the soil; With old, compacted soil you are limiting the ability for water and nutrients to get into the root systems so aerate either with a mechanical aerator or just do you gardening/mowing with some lawn aerator shoes on. This should help moisture and nutrients get down into the soil and promote a much richer root structure as you've given space for expansion. Hopefully the net effect will be richer, thicker grass.

Mow little and often; raise up the height of the blade (usually a screw on the underside of the mower) so that you are taking only the top 20-30% of the grass off. This will equally promote healthier, thicker grass and leave the clippings on the freshly aerated lawn. As you are only taking the top off, they will degrade quickly and add nutrients back into the soil (using the aerated channels you created earlier). The added benefit here is a more organic lawn. A mulching lawn mower can help cut the grass up even further for more rapid breakdown and reabsorption.

Feed; if the soil has lost too much of it's nutrients you may need to resort to a feed to get it back on track. This is definitely one to do after you have aerated so the feed can really get into the soil and stimulate the roots to branch out.

Hope this helps..

Jack

 

David, if you want to save you should do a DIY on this, you can pick up a handy root extractor off ebay or craiglist perhaps it will set you back like $30-50 what it does is that you can mark and extract all there is at a specific place (mostly including roots, this is the hard part ) then to aerate don't call in someone RENT! Where I live there is a tool rental at the home depot that rents a mechanical aerator + over seeder you should rent that ( a little over $100/4hrs), use that to go through you lawn aerating + over seeding, once done LEAVE the plugs on the garden as they help in nitrogen built-up... after that just feed your grass (and if you see moss again just use the extractor/aerate/seed (small patches you can extract with a manual aerator tool).

 

Lawn Rake

can be bought on ebay for £85
NEW GARDEN GEAR RAKE SCARIFIER LAWN 1300W RRP £149 | eBay

then, add some Scotts Autumn lawn feeder (slow release) and water well with a sprinkler .... costs approx £26 which will cover 400 sq meters and available from most garden centres in the UK ... you may find that greenthumb works out cheaper?

repeat the process in spring and when you see weeds growing, pull them out (spend an hour or 2 a week ... it's better than letting the weeds get as big as cabbages and overunning the place, and then trying to eradicate them with weedkiller) ....

if your garden is too large for you to handle, hire a gardener to visit every 2nd or 3rd week during spring/summer to do the menial chores such as weeding the lawn .... many elderly folk who are retired will do gardening for less than £10/hr, just to keep busy.

if your garden is large, get a decent petrol mower and mow regulary, but only cut the top 1/3rd of the grass .... get a mower with a catch box and don't leave clippings on the grass (i.e. do not mulch)

if you buy a used mower off ebay in the next few months (winter), approx £200 will get you a bargain, but have the blade sharpened/balanced (or get a new blade fitted)

and if you have a continuous problem of moss, that could be an indication that not enough sun is getting to the effected areas, so check the hedges/large trees on your boundaries and prune accordingly to let more light/sun onto the lawn? .... there should not be any moss at this time of year, as it's been very dry in most areas

I'm not an expert, and these are just some of my own ideas based on what I have seen in the past