Advice on getting rid of moss on lawn please

[nicky2512]

I know virtually nothing about gardening and my lovely 16 year old Ds cuts the grass etc for me. I am aware that there’s a lot of moss but apparently it has got much worse. He says that it was really hard to cut and he’s not happy with how it looks.
He googled a bit and was planning on getting something to poke holes into the ground with (?) but I’m looking some advice on what else to try.
Should he rake it out?
Some neighbours used stuff that turned theirs black and killed it off but I’m reluctant to use that as our grass joins onto our neighbours and she might not be too impressed. Would also rather avoid harmful chemicals.
Any advice would be welcome. Thank you.

You could buy a hand scarifier if your DS is okay with a bit of physical labour. Or, if you have a bigger garden, perhaps hire an electric one.

Thank you @altforvarmt. Physical labour no problem! And it’s not very big.
Is that something he can do now? There’s no particular season or weather or anything? Sorry I did say I knew nothing! He will be doing the bit that belongs to neighbour too so don’t want to get it wrong!

Scarifier is what you need. DH did the back garden yesterday, filled our garden waste wheelie bin, there was so much moss. We have an electric one.

In my experience, not always worth it especially if the reason for moss is a shady garden (like ours). DH got a bee in his bonnet one year, hired a scarifier and put some stuff on that made the lawn go black. Basically it looked rubbish for the rest of the year and the moss grew back over winter anyway

Autumn or late spring, normally. It'll be pretty brutal on your lawn, so it's done when the grass is growing strongly.

Would probably recommend that your DS do your lawn first and then you consult with the neighbour before theirs is done. It looks terrible in the short-term, but is worth it.

To stop it coming back you will need to fix the cause of your grass not growing vigorously enough to out-compete the moss.
Is the lawn particularly wet, or acidic? Perhaps improving drainage and adding some lime will help.
Is it too shady perhaps? Removing the moss, improving drainage and pH and adding some nice vigorous grass seed might help.

Aree with above: there is no point getting rid of it if you don't sort out why it is there in the first place. It'll just come back again.

Feeding and reseeding the lawn, increasing drainage and aeration, increasing soil quality through top dressings. As pp said, you need to create the conditions so that the grass grows quickly and so blocks out the moss. Pick a grass seed that grows quickly and is suited to your specific environment to incraeses chances.

Personally, I'd like with the moss which is lovely enough - but appreciate we all have different preferences.

My garden is wet there is no fixing it because its waterlogged every winter

I live with the moss

I love the moss. There is a reason it grows there better than the grass. In japanese flower shops you can buy dozens of types of moss, and they have moss gardens. Our passe perceptions are the problems - scarify/chemicals/pesticides/fungicides/herbicides/constant mowing/watering in drought

Could you take a closer look and see how pretty it is, and stays green longer than grass in the summer.

Thanks everyone. Really appreciate that. Will read over with Ds later and see what he thinks.
Garden is not shady at all and doesn’t seem particularly wet either.
Personally it doesn’t bother me as long as it’s green but Ds isn’t happy with how it looks and he does put a lot of effort in so I want to get him advice.
Thank you all so much.

I used iron oxide on ours. It is much better than the named products (which contain it anyway but also other unwanted stuff).

When the moss had gone black I used a rake and removed it all, plus thatching which also needs to be done. After that I bought micro clover which is a mix of little clover and grass seed, and re-seeded it. We had a beautiful lawn, however due to shade it was hard to keep the moss from returning.

This might help www.lawnsmith.co.uk/lawn-care-advice/how-to-feed-lawn/using-ferrous-sulphate#:~:text=Using%20Ferrous%20Sulphate&text=Also%20known%20as%20iron%20sulphate,healthy%20throughout%20the%20cooler%20months.

I made a list of the timeline and lawn care timetable for the year. A good lawn needs work. Also have an aerator and a scarifier but you only need to stab with a fork and rake it well, I found it more effective.

How short did he cut the grass? At this time of year it should be on the long side.

To get rid of the moss, you need to get rid of the cause. In this case, it is probably hard compacted ground that's the problem, so making holes is a good idea. You don't need a fancy implement, just a large garden fork. Push it in with your foot to about 6 inches and wiggle it back and forth a bit. Do that all over. You can scarify it with a spring tine rake, enough to lift the moss up, then mow afterwards. If there are bare patches, sprinkle lawn seed on them. It will probably take a year before it really starts to look better though.

Great thank you.
He only took a small amount of it. He didn’t intend to cut it so soon but we were the last garden left in our estate that hadn’t! It had got very long and the neighbour was getting concerned!
Have shown him all this info and he’s delighted. Will get a better read over it all later.

I told him he’d get all the answers he needed on here!

Raise your mower to the highest setting them rake after each cut and scarify regularly to let the CO2 out.

Moss stays green when the grass dies in the summer and it's soft to walk on...

My late father used to pay people to come and put lawn feed on his lawn several times a year. When I took over looking over the house for him I stopped it, because I thought it was a pointless waste of money. He had a nice lawn ... within a year it was a moss-covered mess. Sometimes, one's old dad knows best!

I pay Green thumb to treat mine and its amazing the difference it makes. First year they did it they scarified and cleared the thatch. Ì had a dirt patch with little green left. But now it's beautiful.

Your son is right it does need aerating with a proper tool or a garden fork
Fill the holes with sharp sand ad spread over top of lawn
Rake off moss too

Feed

Cut grass

Do this forever more 🤣

I paved my lawn in the end (it was shady and have a dog and kids)