dealing with Moss in my lawn

Hi,

I have been reading Paul Wheaton's lawn care for the cheap and lazy here. Since we have a youngster running around now I want to loose the chemicals. I've got my pH tested, ready to apply lime, mow high, leave the clippings on the lawn and aerate aerate aerate- however we are in the pacific north west. I can't exactly starve the lawn of water so I can water it once every 4-6 weeks too starve the weeds- it just doesn't get that dry here. Furthermore, every winter the moss grows back in.

If I apply lime and compost I expect it will encourage the moss right? Should I get rid of the moss prior to spring maintenance? I'd like to aerate and apply sand to improve drainage but its going to be hard to find that time this year. Should I ignore the moss this year?

Thanks

It was always my understanding that moss was a sign of your pH being too low. The lime should correct that. A couple of years ago, I had some moss growing between my grass. Once I limed, the grass grew in better and I haven't seen the moss since.

I think that your best plan would be to lime it up to a ph of 6.5-6.8 and then just do what you can to get the grass to grow thicker.

Why do you add sand to your lawn? The structure of your soil will dictate how much lime you are going to have to apply. For example, the dirt in my front and back yards are different enough that I need to apply double the amount of lime in the back to get the same effect. This has something to do with the soil weight and the front being more sandy.

I also believe that Paul generally discourages aerating as he sees it a waste of time.

Tom Pavlo wrote:It was always my understanding that moss was a sign of your pH being too low. The lime should correct that. A couple of years ago, I had some moss growing between my grass. Once I limed, the grass grew in better and I haven't seen the moss since.

There are certain parts of my yard that I want to encourage moss growth (Its like a soft green carpet!) so I imagine I should purposely lower the PH somehow...

Tom Pavlo wrote:It was always my understanding that moss was a sign of your pH being too low. The lime should correct that. A couple of years ago, I had some moss growing between my grass. Once I limed, the grass grew in better and I haven't seen the moss since.

I think that your best plan would be to lime it up to a ph of 6.5-6.8 and then just do what you can to get the grass to grow thicker.

Why do you add sand to your lawn? The structure of your soil will dictate how much lime you are going to have to apply. For example, the dirt in my front and back yards are different enough that I need to apply double the amount of lime in the back to get the same effect. This has something to do with the soil weight and the front being more sandy.

I also believe that Paul generally discourages aerating as he sees it a waste of time.

Hi Tom,

I had read in my local paper than aereating and then adding sand should improve drainage and discourage moss growth. I'm not doing that this year anyway. I will adjust the pH first. Can I lime when the lawn is wet?

water and pH are definitely culprits, but you need to also look at how much sunlight your yard gets. The lower sunlight levels in winter may be helping the moss spread/return every year.

Food for thought, what are the drawbacks to moss beside the cosmetics? You basically dont have to do anything to it, and it will develop into a soft green carpet if left undisturbed. I remember moss yards from back east and they were really quite nice.

Rich Pasto wrote:water and pH are definitely culprits, but you need to also look at how much sunlight your yard gets. The lower sunlight levels in winter may be helping the moss spread/return every year.

Food for thought, what are the drawbacks to moss beside the cosmetics? You basically dont have to do anything to it, and it will develop into a soft green carpet if left undisturbed. I remember moss yards from back east and they were really quite nice.

Yes, I am beginning to accept the moss. It is cheap and easy after all. Winter sunlight is a problem here, as well as "excess" winter "moisture".

Hi folks,

My first post here... I have moss in my lawn too. The street we're at being called "Moss Way" makes me think there must be a reason for it... I like grass so I do aerate and then I wonder what I should do with the collected biomass. I've read it's not a good idea to put it into the compost, and I really don't want to dispose it with the regular garbage and have it burnt along with it. So what could I do with all that material? Any ideas and hints highly welcome!

Iseli

I have been working for years to get more moss in my lawn. That and clover. Why would I do this? The more moss and clover you have, the less you have to mow and water. How can you not want that?

Tom OHern wrote:I have been working for years to get more moss in my lawn. That and clover. Why would I do this? The more moss and clover you have, the less you have to mow and water. How can you not want that?

Well, there's 2 things: one I like mowing the lawn, it's not that big so I don't mind the work. Plus it gives me material for mulching. Second, moss comes off much too easily when kids are playing on the lawn, and the bare spots look ugly. The clover you mention is not my favorite either because of its flowers. When the kids are playing barefoot in summer, the risk to get stung by bees. Don't get me wrong, I love bees and I have a small lot of garden with wild flowers.

Paul Wheaton writes about aeration at Best Time for Aeration and Aeration Panacea or Myth?. My interpretation is that aeration is useful if your soil is crap and you are unwilling to till it or to replace the grass with a cover crop for one season. Aerate before amending with compost and lime.

I have a lawn which had never been aerated in 15 years. There were patches where the grass was sparse and growing slowly. These patches were more compacted than the rest of the lawn (I stuck a fork in to test). After core aerating the grass grew better. You can read what I've done at Kiwi lawn on track?. Is your soil compacted? You didn't mention if it was - just that you wanted improved drainage (which compost will do). I picked my cores up by hand and crushed them, returning loose dirt and microbes to the lawn.

The long term solution is to increase the amount of organic matter in the soil. Leave your clippings on the lawn and spread compost. This will feed the worms. Worms make tunnels. Aeration.

I speculate that longer grass, with deeper roots, will help water to drain better than short grass. It will also make better use of whatever water is thrown at it. Can someone wise comment on this?

On clover. There are some microclover cultivars which produce very few flowers. They also have smaller leaves than usual. Against clover is that it is a little more slippery than grass for playing on.