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In these greener days, there are still many who are willing to put up with a mossy lawn…In fact, some love it!

But for lawn enthusiasts, it’s an annoyance…sometimes even seen as a failure.

What causes moss?

Well, simply put….many things. It is more often than not blamed on that poor old ‘shade’. People often never look close enough, but when it’s over the whole lawn…it’s not necessarily just a shade issue.

Here are the main causes;
1. Short mowing-this is one of the main causes. Cutting too short removes too much leaf blade. This can cause the plants to thatch up quicker. This will then lead to moisture retention…leading to moss encroachment.
2. Irregular mowing-a lack of a sensible mowing regime can also allow moss to flourish. Allowing the grass to grow long can mean that moss spores get the wet, moist conditions they need to survive.
3.Compaction-this can be caused by the short mowing. Thinning canopies can allow the sun to bake the surface, which will cause compaction within the top few millimetres of the soil profile. This can be enough to stop water filtrating through the soil quickly enough.
4.Nutrition-a lack of nutrition is rarely seen as something that can give moss a helping hand. But many UK grasses grow in a way, whereby a lack of nutrition can cause the plant to use up food reserves. This will make grasses produce more shoots and dead leaves, leading to increased thatch levels.

So, how can we cope with controlling or eradicating moss?

Ensuring you have a healthy plant is always a great start. And this is done by correcting all of the above issues.

Scarification-this will remove moss plants. The ‘bit’ we see. It won’t kill moss spores though.

Scarify in many directions, removing a small amount each time, rather than one pass.

Moss killer-often this can be done badly…or in fact at the wrong time. Moss killers are best applied through adding water as it can scorch grass plants. However, if that’s not possible, try and apply after you have scarified, and maybe before a shower of rain.

Make sure you cut your lawn at a sensible height. Short mowing does nothing but stress the plant out. There is a reason why golf courses only have 18 small circles. It’s very expensive to maintain short grass in a healthy way.

Ensure your mower blade is sharp and cutting at a sensible height. It’s better to have a slightly longer mown lawn, which has grass, than a short cropped one that is thinning out and sparse.

Aerate as regularly as you can. Soils are often forgotten about, as they are not seen by us very often, but remember, these are where we expect our plants to be growing. Along with using feeds, such as Nutrifusion, aeration will also get working on those very important soil bacteria’s.

Try and work out a regular feeding pattern to your lawn. Irregular feeding patterns (waiting for a lawn to become hungry before you apply another feed) do not help lawns. They like a sensible balanced feed program.

All of these things make it easier to control moss, by keeping your lawn healthy.

This, in turn, makes it more difficult for moss to have a chance to come back in.