Moss problem

[Terry7556]

Moved into this house 3 months ago. During this time we have removed bushes /trees on both sides of the garden.there was a 4 foot gap on the edge of the patio to wall onto the lawn.the lawn was like walking on triple underlay with the moss.
Ten days ago put some moss/weed killer on the lawn which has appeared to kill off a lot and this afternoon started to use a new scarifier( not a lawn rake)
Well on the highest setting (10 mm) I filled the 6 fertiliser bags and 2 builders bags. I'm thinking when will it stop, or how long do I go on for or how deep do i cut for
Any advice or pointers please

Untitled

• Terry7556
• 15 Jun 2013
• 1

Untitled

• Terry7556
• 15 Jun 2013
• 1

Untitled

• Terry7556
• 15 Jun 2013
• 1

Untitled

• Terry7556
• 15 Jun 2013
• 1

 

[Pigeon85]

When I did my lawn I just raked it off the top and never had moss come back after 2 years, not much help on the scarifier setting I'm afraid. Only have a small garden and remember having a fairly big pile which the birds kindly removed for me for nesting.

 

[Terry7556]

We used a rake at the start but quickly realised that a lawn untouched for decades, except for cutting the grass, was going to need some serious work
Cheers for your input

 

[Deleted2797112]

Recently moved to a new house too and I'm in the process of doing mine - it's like walking on cushions! I didn't use a mosskiller first as I felt it would leave the lawns too bare all at the same time so I scarified 2 of the 4 areas with a spring tined rake as much as I could in the early spring before the grass came into active growth and I'll have a go at the rest in the Autumn which is the best time to scarify. I filled up wheelie bin after wheelie bin of the stuff I raked out - it was quite amazing how much there was! The areas that I cleared, I spiked really well with a fork to open up the structure and improve drainage and those areas are starting to look much improved. I've just done a feed and seed on them.

I've no experience of using a powered scarifier but I can't see it's hugely different to doing it by hand - I raked until I could see nothing but grass and bare soil left - I went over each area at least a couple of times.

 

[kingandy2nd]

Looks like you've given it a good scarifying there. When you say the highest setting, do you mean the deepest? I.e have you left blade marks in the soil?

You're a bit late to be scarifying for the spring tbh, so if we have another hot & dry spell you'll need to keep it watered regularly.

Tbh after a proper scarifying the lawn will look crap for at least a month until it has time to recover.

As for the bare patches, I highly recommend the 4 day germination grass seed from homebase. I filled so 3 inch hollows (about 2ft sq) with soil 2 weeks ago and with watering it every day and the sunshine we've had I now have fully grass cover again.

Edit: just re-read your first post. you want to scarify with the blades set so they scratch about 5mm into the ground .

 

[kingandy2nd]

Recently moved to a new house too and I'm in the process of doing mine - it's like walking on cushions! I didn't use a mosskiller first as I felt it would leave the lawns too bare all at the same time so I scarified 2 of the 4 areas with a spring tined rake as much as I could in the early spring before the grass came into active growth and I'll have a go at the rest in the Autumn which is the best time to scarify. I filled up wheelie bin after wheelie bin of the stuff I raked out - it was quite amazing how much there was! The areas that I cleared, I spiked really well with a fork to open up the structure and improve drainage and those areas are starting to look much improved. I've just done a feed and seed on them.

I've no experience of using a powered scarifier but I can't see it's hugely different to doing it by hand - I raked until I could see nothing but grass and bare soil left - I went over each area at least a couple of times.

Power scarifier is amazing. I got a qualcast scarifier and rake - 63.99 at homebase on one of their 20% off weekends. Despite being cheap it did exactly what I needed on my 400m sq garden. I filled two van loads up with moss and thatch.

You can actually see where the grass seed I spread afterwards has grown more strongly in the holes left by the blades.

Also I would definitely recommend moss killer - I use the 4 in 1 moss/weed killer and fertiliser. I read on a gardening website that if you scarify without killing the moss first you actually help it to proliferate as you just spread it around the garden.

 

[kingandy2nd]

Make your second pass with the scarifier set deeper at 90 degrees to your first run (I.e go left to right rather than up and down the garden again).

You've probably got the worst of the thatch out now, but best to finish it properly now and have a great lawn for the next couple of years.

 

[Deleted2797112]

Power scarifier is amazing. I got a qualcast scarifier and rake - 63.99 at homebase on one of their 20% off weekends. Despite being cheap it did exactly what I needed on my 400m sq garden. I filled two van loads up with moss and thatch.

You can actually see where the grass seed I spread afterwards has grown more strongly in the holes left by the blades.

Also I would definitely recommend moss killer - I use the 4 in 1 moss/weed killer and fertiliser. I read on a gardening website that if you scarify without killing the moss first you actually help it to proliferate as you just spread it around the garden.

I'm not sure I can justify the expense of a scarifier when I can do it manually - plenty of time, less money! I did look at maybe hiring one but was further put off by a newspaper item written by a woman who tried a hired scarifier and found it incredibly difficult. I think that was a petrol machine, maybe electric would be easier for a small person of the female persuasion.

After a complete first go over with raking, I'll probably tidy up the remaining stuff with a mosskiller. Hopefully by then the effect won't be quite as drastic! I checked with the RHS about spreading it around - I've got acid soil so wanted minimise any risk of making the problem worse. They reckon moss spores are so ubiquitous, there's no risk. They say it can be composted too with no risk, but I've got nothing like enough space.

 

[Terry7556]

Plenty of advice as requested so thank you, everyone.
The variety helps as well
So what I did was ten days ago put moss/weed killer and feed onit. 3 boxes each meant to do 50m squared, applied with a spreader trying to be consistent . Went down Devon last wek and came back ready to tackle the job with an electric scarifier from Screwfix £70.grass collector rubbish but didn't use it, raked it up.hire shop was £60 for one day ,petrol job
Made 3 passes ,middle one left to right against the grain so to speak.started at 10 mm, then flush and last one minus 10mm making grooves in the ground.each pass today filled 2 builders bags(half full) and 8 fertiliser bags.3 trips down the tip,cannot believe how much came put .sitting here looking at the garden, knackered.
Gonna take the advice, grass seeds, plenty of water, wait a month and assess it from there
Many thanks again

 

[kingandy2nd]

I'm not sure I can justify the expense of a scarifier when I can do it manually - plenty of time, less money! I did look at maybe hiring one but was further put off by a newspaper item written by a woman who tried a hired scarifier and found it incredibly difficult. I think that was a petrol machine, maybe electric would be easier for a small person of the female persuasion.

After a complete first go over with raking, I'll probably tidy up the remaining stuff with a mosskiller. Hopefully by then the effect won't be quite as drastic! I checked with the RHS about spreading it around - I've got acid soil so wanted minimise any risk of making the problem worse. They reckon moss spores are so ubiquitous, there's no risk. They say it can be composted too with no risk, but I've got nothing like enough space.

Yeah I read the same article, but she was a bit of a div that woman

Fair play if you've got the time to rake your garden - probably a good work out for you too. But for me at 400sq m it was just too much to do by hand and to hire an electric one round my way was £27, so I thought I might as well buy my own given the price difference.

 

[kingandy2nd]

Plenty of advice as requested so thank you, everyone.
The variety helps as well
So what I did was ten days ago put moss/weed killer and feed onit. 3 boxes each meant to do 50m squared, applied with a spreader trying to be consistent . Went down Devon last wek and came back ready to tackle the job with an electric scarifier from Screwfix £70.grass collector rubbish but didn't use it, raked it up.hire shop was £60 for one day ,petrol job
Made 3 passes ,middle one left to right against the grain so to speak.started at 10 mm, then flush and last one minus 10mm making grooves in the ground.each pass today filled 2 builders bags(half full) and 8 fertiliser bags.3 trips down the tip,cannot believe how much came put .sitting here looking at the garden, knackered.
Gonna take the advice, grass seeds, plenty of water, wait a month and assess it from there
Many thanks again

Good work.

I found I had better success with my grass seed by mixing it with top soil in a bucket - 3 handfuls of soil to one of grass seed. Then scatter it on the bare patches, rake it in lightly, another scattering of soil only on top, then trampled it down.

If you can water it every day, or even better morning and evening, then it'll be back to looking good in no time.

 

[HERTS P&D]

Nice size garden, good luck in the new house.

Andy