Mossy grass-repair or replace?

Joined
21 Sep 2006
Messages
100
Reaction score
0
Location
Birmingham
Country
United Kingdom
We have just moved into a house with a large(30ftx75ft) garden.
it has lots of moss-one patch i sprayed with liquid moss killer(3yr old calls it garden killer) and after raking it was just dirt so i re-seeded and i am waiting!!!!.
is what i am doing correct or should i rotovate the whole lot(needs leveling too) and sort of start again?
I dont think the garden has been touched for a number of years but has mainly longish wild looking grass when it grows, also it had about 20 trees which have been felled,will this help with the moss? and i have started mowing the whole area.
Thanks
Ray
 
Sponsored Links
Hi bear with me this is my first post

As i see it you have two choices if your lawn is very bad reseed or turf.only difference is cost of turf over cost of seed either way, to do it properly, preparation is the same.

1 mow it low as poss
2 spray the lot with glyphosate (best way with large area) or hire a turf cutter and remove old lawn
3 rotavate not too deep just enough to get a good tilth, unless its very uneven and you want to take out lumps and bumps
4 compact whole area with a heavy roller
5 rake and level
6 rake and level
7 rake and level

If i was turfing it i would scatter some compost very thinly over the lot for turf to get going into.

There is no doubt that newly laid turf looks brilliant and you have instant lawn but given the size of the area it wont be cheap and you must be looking at least £250 £300 for the turf compared to £25 £30 for seed. With the seed you will need to look after it for a while till it gets established, keeping the birds kids, dogs ,cats etc away.

Good luck
 
If it is mossy it is too wet.

What are you going to do to cure the wet problam?

Putting a new lawn on wet ground will just go mossy again.
 
Moss is a short daylight plant so its vigerous in the winter months. It also likes shade. I think the trees nutured the moss somewhat so it should be better now they are not there.

Before giving up on it try raking it witha fine wire rake to get rid of a much moss and dead thatch as possible. Hire a hoolow core tyne machine which will extract cores of soil size of a decent cigar. Then mix equal amounts of sharp (river) sand and John Innes number 1 soil based vcompost and spread over the lawn thinly. Sweep the dressing into the holes. Keep going til the holes are full. This will improve drainage and get some air into the soil.

Liquid feed the grass through summer so its better able to combat the moss. Reseed bare patches in september. see how you go. Next year if the moss returns with a vengance you a liquid moss killer and prepare to reseed again. Depends on how good you want your lawn to look.

visit www.superspray.co.uk for a hose end feeder and liquid lawn feed and moss killer.

It takes a bit of time but im sure you'll get there
 
Sponsored Links
the answer to a good lawn is good drainage lots of water and lots of fertilizer and lots of mowing regular preferably with a cylinder mower or a sharp rotary o and raking to taake out dead grass and stop grass laying flat rooting shallow.cheapest fertilizer is growmore £7, 25 kg sack use it spring autumn its ok for a basic garden lawn
 
My experience shows that one must be carefull using pellets for feeding grass. If it doesnt rain within two or three days there is a good chance it may turn brown as the pellets burn the foliage. You may have to use a hose pipe afetr all.

Lawn magic which I use cost £0.2p /sq m. and its easy to apply with a superspray hose end feeder, once applied i have no worries. You need to buy a lawn spreaded for pellets to get an even feed and thats all you can use it for. My superspray cost me a tenner and I can use it wash my car with too.

Ive tried the miraclegro feeder but it takes too much time and you must buy in to their feed. I like to use seaweed for the vegies and lawn magic for the lawns and plant magic for everything else so I need afeeder like superspray which will lets me do just that.
 
So far i have applied dry moss killer and on the bad areas the wet stuff aswell,I work away so i can only get at the garden two days a month.
so far I have raked a load of dead moss out and in one 6ftx8ft area that was completly bare reseeded and we have grass :D .
Having done some more research and looking at the other posts(thanks guys and gals) removing the 20 odd trees was the first thing i did right and now its just time and sweat.
Thanks for all the advice so far
Ray
 
the trouble with liquid feed is it is very soluble so first down pour and it will be washed out of the soil and its not cheap for what you need to put on . granular fertilizer is ok if the lawn is well raked and cut low it will fall on the soil not the grass blades . you donnt need a spreader unless you have an acre of lawn
 
Never found that to happen personally, The grass takes it through the leaves and the roots and You get a really even greening and feeding.
Growmore is cheap for sure but its not a lawn feed (npk 5:5:5) and the pellets take some desolving. Its meant for soil application, lawn feeds generally have a higher nitrogen content. But yer pays yer money and takes yer choice !
 

DIYnot Local

Staff member

If you need to find a tradesperson to get your job done, please try our local search below, or if you are doing it yourself you can find suppliers local to you.

Select the supplier or trade you require, enter your location to begin your search.


Are you a trade or supplier? You can create your listing free at DIYnot Local

 
Sponsored Links
Back
Top