OV9

I cut my garden for the first time this year and found that I now have about 50/50 ratio of grass to moss.

I know the cause - poor drainage, clay soil etc so I've bought an aerator and some treatment but does anyone have any old wisdom, the type of wisdom passed down from grandfather to grandson that they could impart ???

I don't have any wisdom to add on moss I'm afraid but I'm going to shamelessly hijack this thread to ask @Mito Man what product it was he used to kill algae on paving as my patio to the rear is doing a good job of blending in with the greenery around it

GG. wrote: Fri Mar 07, 2025 12:37 pm I don't have any wisdom to add on moss I'm afraid but I'm going to shamelessly hijack this thread to ask @Mito Man what product it was he used to kill algae on paving as my patio to the rear is doing a good job of blending in with the greenery around it

Wet and Forget

On the moss front it’s been the one of the wettest years ever. Just put down a moss killer, rake/scarify after 2 weeks, mow, chuck down some new seed on the thinner patches.

Mito Man wrote: Fri Mar 07, 2025 12:46 pm

GG. wrote: Fri Mar 07, 2025 12:37 pm I don't have any wisdom to add on moss I'm afraid but I'm going to shamelessly hijack this thread to ask @Mito Man what product it was he used to kill algae on paving as my patio to the rear is doing a good job of blending in with the greenery around it

Wet and Forget

On the moss front it’s been the one of the wettest years ever. Just put down a moss killer, rake/scarify after 2 weeks, mow, chuck down some new seed on the thinner patches.

Cheers!

Tim evostick gave me some advice on this topic in the past..... but I think it was on evo as opposed to ov9 as I can only find THIS

Our clay soil means the lawn has a lot of moss (just like our old house, and my house before that). I don't dislike it enough to have done anything about it. I did put some moss killer on my lawn about 15 years ago and it ended up with black dead moss everywhere, so I never bothered again; green moss is fine

However, I have been watching Youtube videos about it just in case I can be bothered. Mo Bacter seems to be the treatment to use; it doesn't just kill the moss, it digests it so you don't have unsightly black moss left. But scarifying is also necessary to pick it up. Here's what I think was one of the best descriptions of how to do it all:

Just embrace the moss, like the Japanese do.

Interesting idea Marv - I didn't think of trying to kill the grass, rather than the moss.

It is actually a lovely vivid green colour..

I'll check out the vid Jobbo - I guess I know what needs to be done but I'm bone idle lazy and was hoping for some short cuts...

Thanks all

dinny_g wrote: Fri Mar 07, 2025 2:01 pm I'm bone idle lazy and was hoping for some short cuts...

In that case my advice would be... get a man in.

Try having ducks and a big dog aswell, our garden looks like the Somme despite hours and hours of work.

Spring is when the work is needed so get cracking.

Dave!

GG. wrote: Fri Mar 07, 2025 2:03 pm

dinny_g wrote: Fri Mar 07, 2025 2:01 pm I'm bone idle lazy and was hoping for some short cuts...

In that case my advice would be... get a man in.

That's what I do, similar soil composition in Cheshire so moss is rife. I have a lawn treatment firm that come in, moss treatment, lawn feed, scarify, aerate etc. You need to be on it constantly it or the moss just comes right back

V8Granite wrote: Fri Mar 07, 2025 2:35 pm a big dog aswell, our garden looks like the Somme despite hours and hours of work.

Yeah neighbour with the two Rottweilers has astroturf'd his.

dinny_g wrote: Fri Mar 07, 2025 2:01 pm I'm bone idle lazy and was hoping for some short cuts...

Yes, that's why I haven't done it too - the bit which looks an absolute pain is clearing up the moss which comes up from scarifying.

It doesn't take much effort if you've got a lawn mower with a collector. Just mow over the scarified/raked moss.
Even less work if you've got a ride on as you can just drag a scarifier and mow at the same time.

Jobbo wrote: Fri Mar 07, 2025 5:37 pm

dinny_g wrote: Fri Mar 07, 2025 2:01 pm I'm bone idle lazy and was hoping for some short cuts...

Yes, that's why I haven't done it too - the bit which looks an absolute pain is clearing up the moss which comes up from scarifying.

Your garden is big enough to warrant a Unimog with attachment so get on it!!

Dave!

Anyone had any experience with using liquid gypsum to soften clay soil?

Our lawn is approx 80% moss, 18% daisies, 2% grass

Everything I’ve read makes it seem like a massive pain in the arse to do anything about it, and as about 99% of my time outside at home is spent fudging about with cars I’ve never bothered.

Annoyingly the grass at the barn, which was just a field cut once a year for 20 odd years and now mown once a month in growing season, is lovely in comparison.

Mito Man wrote: Fri Mar 07, 2025 5:42 pm It doesn't take much effort if you've got a lawn mower with a collector. Just mow over the scarified/raked moss.
Even less work if you've got a ride on as you can just drag a scarifier and mow at the same time.

Indeed I could collect it, but I’ll be making a trip to the compost heap every time I turn round with the amount pulled out. Then I’ll have a pile of moss taller than my garage to deal with. Cannot be bothered.

Unimog is a much better idea but too tall to get to the garden

‘Gravel path!’ Lord Emsworth stiffened through the whole length of his stringy body. Nature, he had always maintained, intended a yew alley to be carpeted with a mossy growth. And, whatever Nature felt about it, he personally was dashed if he was going to have men with Clydeside accents and faces like dissipated potatoes coming along and mutilating that lovely expanse of green velvet. ‘Gravel path, indeed! Why not asphalt? Why not a few
hoardings with advertisements of liver pills and a filling-station? That’s what the man would really like.’

Angus McAllister, extending a foot that looked like a violin-case, pressed it on the moss. The meaning of the gesture was plain. It expressed contempt, dislike, a generally anti-moss spirit: and Lord Emsworth, wincing, surveyed the man unpleasantly through his pince-nez. Though not often given to theological speculation, he was wondering why Providence, if obliged to make head-gardeners, had found it necessary to make them so Scotch. In the case of Angus McAllister, why, going a step farther, have made him a human being at all? All the ingredients of a first-class mule simply thrown away. He felt that he might have like Angus McAllister if he had been a mule.

Lot of moss at Newt Towers I can tell you. There is a chunk of garden which I'm sure is atop old concrete and doesn't drain, so is reduced to bogland. I have emptied half a box of some branded lawn supplement over it in folorn hope this morning.