I recently moved house. The new house has an awful back garden. The lawn is patchy and full of moss. The soil beneath the lawn ranges from almost pure sand to a light, sandy topsoil. (I live in Holland - I guess this was part of the seabed a few hundred years ago!). The garden lawn is partially sunny - a fence shades one half of the lawn for much of the day.

What should I do?

I have tried a bit of moss killer, but it is clear that this is going to leave me with a *lot* of bare patches. I'm thinking that the only thing to do is to rotavate the whole garden, apply a layer of topsoil and then lay new turf. Is this the best approach? Or is there something else I should do?

"PEHowland" wrote in message
...

I recently moved house. The new house has an awful back garden. The
lawn is patchy and full of moss. The soil beneath the lawn ranges from
almost pure sand to a light, sandy topsoil. (I live in Holland - I
guess this was part of the seabed a few hundred years ago!). The
garden lawn is partially sunny - a fence shades one half of the lawn
for much of the day.

What should I do?

I have tried a bit of moss killer, but it is clear that this is going
to leave me with a *lot* of bare patches. I'm thinking that the only
thing to do is to rotavate the whole garden, apply a layer of topsoil
and then lay new turf. Is this the best approach? Or is there
something else I should do?

Moss kill, maybe lime, and fertilizer. When the moss dies out, reseed.

Many people I've seen with mossy lawns never fertilize. Grass needs food to grow
well.

You have poor air movement through your turf which is encouraging the moss.
I wouldn't start again because you will effectively ruin any soil structure you may already have.
When the ground is dry, push a garden fork deep into the surface to 'open it up' a little. This should be done as many times as is possible over the entire lawn area.
Then, give the moss a good raking over to remove as much thatch as possible exposing some soil, overseed with a good quality dwarf ryegrass based seeds mixture, roll well, then finally feed at least 2-3 times a year.
Do not use moss killer on new grass seedlings, it will burn them up.
Given that you have very sandy soil which is prone to fertility losses I would mulch all your clippings back onto the ground to recycle as many nutrients as possible. This will also encourage worm activity and keep your soil 'open' to some extent.

On Mar 4, 7:45*am, Grassman
wrote:
You have poor air movement through your turf which is encouraging the
moss.
I wouldn't start again because you will effectively ruin any soil
structure you may already have.
When the ground is dry, push a garden fork deep into the surface to
'open it up' a little. This should be done as many times as is possible
over the entire lawn area.
Then, give the moss a good raking over to remove as much thatch as
possible exposing some soil, overseed with a good quality dwarf
ryegrass based seeds mixture, roll well, then finally feed at least 2-3
times a year.
Do not use moss killer on new grass seedlings, it will burn them up.
Given that you have very sandy soil which is prone to fertility losses
I would mulch all your clippings back onto the ground to recycle as
many nutrients as possible. This will also encourage worm activity and
keep your soil 'open' to some extent.

--
Grassman


I'd go with rototilling the whole thing and starting over. If there
are weeds, you can apply Roundup/glyphosate when they are actively
growing. Before tilling, spread a few inchs of humus, which could be
composted leaves, well seasoned manure, or similar organic matter that
is available in your area. That will give you a much improved soil,
which will save years of frustration.

Test and adjust the PH as needed. Then re-seed using a high quality
seed that is suited for the environment. Apply starter fertilizer and
keep constantly moist for several weeks, then gradually back off the
watering.

Other choice instead of re-seeding is sod, but of course more $$$