Nervous Gardener
Peanuts3
Posts: 759
Our lawn is about 80% moss and weeds and I'm trying to slowly slowly increase the amount of grass, It is an area of about 350m2 so re turfing and re seeding not an option as also have young children.
The soil is sandy and it is a shady garden, although getting more light in the last 2 years than it has done in years.
In autumn I fed the lawn and was amazed for first time I had some grass in the mower box rather than just hoovering up leaves. Of course the lawn food also fed the moss and with all the rain it has gone crazy.
I've bought some lawn food with moss killer. I'm not expecting it to all go, and don't want it to all go as to some extent I like moss, soft to sit on and play with the kids etc
If I apply the lawn food and moss killer how bad will it get, my plan is to apply it, then hire an electric rake and rake out all the dead moss in a few weeks and then re-seed over the top...
Sound like a plan ? I have a husband that is saying dont you dare mess it up. he's scared of there just been mud left and little grass. Some back up required before I bite the bullet on this one...
Posts
this website is really good.
www.lawnsmith.co.uk
Expect the lawn to look a lot worse before it gets better. I started work on mine last autumn. the section i hit hard looked so bad i stopped short of completing the whole lawn. It was basically mud! I look at it now and its the best bit all green and no moss while the rest is still bad.
I treated my 500m2 lawn today with a 4 in 1 moss killer/feed as rain is likely over next few days. I will then rake it (electric one I got cheaper long term than hire) in 2 weeks and over-seed in about 3 weeks or so.
Thats seems to be the general idea from the lawn smith guy.
Overall my lawn is a bit lumpy and i often scrap with the ride on mower even on high setting. Only two ways to stop this are to replace the entire lawn or to lift turf and remove soil in high spots but its a big lawn and a lot of work so leave that until late spring early summer IMO.
below is a photo of my lawn the first 3 metres or so are the bits that looked bad. I raked hard the other day and removed a mattress bag x2 worth of moss which i am now wondering what to do with!
My goodness that is a big lawn to rake ! Hurray for electric rakes ! thanks for the info. I'll post up a picture of mine later.
I have cleared a plot of old and over run trees/shrubs and want to start from scratch but dont know where to start. it is approx 9 mtres x 1 metre and has sun until lunch then shade. I want to have shrubs /plants which are not too difficult to maintain. Any ideas what I should be planting.
This is the lawn this time last year.
this is today. You can see where I raked out the moss last year and still waiting for the grass to thicken up. I guess I'm concerned that we will have bald patched through out the lawn after I start work on it.