OMG The Lawn - The Moss

kah22

I've a pretty big lawn, abou two tennis courts. It's an old lawn and never really in great shape but this winter with all the rain and everything it really suffered.

Went out to cut it this morning and the moss on it is unreal.

It needs something to kill the moss and feed the grass so I'm thinking of getting some 3 in 1 weed,feed, and moss kill, to help start the job. There is no great number of weeds on the lawn so I'm wondering if I can buy an individual product just to kill the moss. Later on in the year I'll feed separately

I know if you sand a lawn it helps with drainage, would that be the sort of sand they take out of lough neagh? I'm told it's the type used on football pitches, or would it be to soft. Know of any suppliers of lawn type sand in the Armagh area

Kevin

redser7

Try lawn sand. It contains iron sulphate which kills the moss, the sand helps condition the soil too. And it greens the grass nicely.

solargain

Or suplphate of Iron used for greening cabbages

kah22

Lawn sand. Yes I had heard of that but as I said my lawn is pretty big, probabbly two tensis courts and plenty of young trees, so I would need to buy it loose. Any idea of surpliers in the Armagh area?

Is there a difference between 'iron sulphate,' and 'sulphateof iron'

Kevin

dharn

No, sulphate of iron is all you need, then the dead moss has to be raked out or scarrify the lawn, it will look terrible for a few weeks but when growth comes feed it and it will be grand

shaydy

Jumping into this thread as its very related to my task at hand.

So i'm a complete novice gardener and we moved into this house towards the end of last year.

The garden appears to have had no maintenance apart from the odd cut but is completely over ridden with weeds and moss. Surface is very uneven too.

I put down 'weed and feed' I picked up in Atlantic around a week ago, no idea whats in it but it appears to have worked (better in some parts not so good in others).

Last night I started to rake the moss but I was a little worried I'm doing more damage than I should as now I see a lot of muck and not so much grass........heres a before and after shot.

Plan is to rake the moss out, put down some grass seeds and see the fruits of my labour.....................Am I on the right road??

Cheers

dharn

Cut it as bare as you can it will make raking easier then reseed the bare patches

Guttervac

I wouldn't scarifying at this time of year, you will pull out all the new growth as well as the moss, leave till late autumn

dharn

Guttervac wrote: »

I wouldn't scarifying at this time of year, you will pull out all the new growth as well as the moss, leave till late autumn

Cannot agree with that, if you scarrify it in the autumn then you will have no growth coming in to the winter so it will look terrible over the winter

shaydy

Cheers folks, what should happen after scarifying the ground? Should I roll some type of compost before seeding?

redser7

No don't scarify now. Do that in the autumn. In September or October and overseed while the soil is still warm. Give it an autumn feed in November and it will look great the following spring.
Just seed it now and make sure to lightly water the lawn each day if there happens to be a dry period.
It should be fine. But the best time to turn your lawn around is September.

shaydy

Thanks folks, i'll hold off now. so i'm thinking;

Treat it with some more feed and weed this / next week
Seed it in May
Scarify in Sept / Oct and reseed

redser7

I wouldn't feed it anymore. Seed it now and then hold off feeding again till mid May.

Vegeta

Thanks guys, same thing at home. Lawn suffered badly this year.

fryup

how about granulated lime to combat moss

Staplor

When you guys say to seed it now, does that mean just fire some seed down on top of what's there now?