Lawn Moss Control
Look at your lawn right now. Is it being overtaken by Moss in the cooler, wetter months of the year? Chances are your mossy lawn is in excessive shade, has compacted & poorly draining soil, poor air circulation, or existing in soil with very high or low pH. Read on for some Best Practices For Lawn Moss Control.
Many people will tell you to “throw a bunch of lime on that mossy lawn” and it will cure it. Adding lime is NOT suggested without a soil test that shows a need to raise the pH. Why? Because highly acidic soils are not the ONLY reason that you have moss! Treating with an Iron Sulfate (ferrous ammonium sulfate) will temporarily burn the moss away, but it will come back within the year if you don’t fix the growing conditions.
Best Practices
Modify Site Conditions To Favor Lawns:
- Prune Up (remove lower limbs) your trees or remove a few to increase the amount of light and improve air circulation.
- Use a Core Aerating Machine once a year to improve drainage of a heavily compacted yard.
Evaluate Your Lawn Care Practices:
- Raise your mowing height to 3″. You may have to mow a little more regularly…Sorry!
- Fertilize twice a year with a Turf Builder or Organic fertilizer such as Milorganite. Part shade lawns can use a little less fertilizer than those in full sun.
- Reduce the amount of “traffic” on a lawn always helps….no driving cars, parking boats, playing soccer!
- Avoid excessive watering. Help your lawn during drought by deeply soaking it for several hours, but less frequently.
So now you’ve trimmed up the trees, aerated & fertilized the soil. If you’re really zealous, you rotary tilled the entire area for a big renovation. You are ready to seed that fresh area with Creeping Red Fescue. Don’t forget to water as it germinates. During drought conditions water it because the nearby trees will compete for the moisture.
You have squelched the Moss Invasion!