1) Lawn Mowing
You may be finding it a little more difficult to get on and mow across the autumn and winter but moss is an invasive plant which enjoys damp conditions. This means that if your grass is being left too long, the base of your lawn could be remaining damp which suits the development of moss.
At the other end of the spectrum, if you are mowing at your summer / a low height of cut then this likely to be a source of stress for the lawn. If the lawn is placed under stress and is thinning out, this gives moss an opportunity to outcompete your grass.
Be sure to leave enough coverage to allow the grass a fighting chance in winter conditions. Maintaining a dense grass cover as we enter autumn and winter is key in combating moss, just like maintaining a thick, healthy lawn in spring will lessen weeds.
Key takeaway: Lift the height of cut a setting on your mower, but continue to cut every 2-4 weeks dependent on growth and conditions.
2) Clear Leaves / Reduce Shade
With the shorter days and limited sunshine, it’s even more important that your lawn gains as much light as possible to remain healthy. Leaves and overhanging bushes / branches restrict the light available.
Some of our best lawn renovation turnarounds have involved some outsourced tree surgery prior to our main renovation work. If you’re looking to upgrade your lawn next year, looking upwards could be the place to start in some cases.
Key takeaway: Clear leaves frequently and reduce shade as much as reasonably possible
3) Nutrition
Lawns need nutrition all year around. Lawns require only very little amounts of nitrogen through the winter months to help with healthy growth, but this is only one element of many which your lawn needs to maintain its strength.
Key nutrients of phosphorous, potassium and magnesium play their role too. With our recent mild autumn and winter months, there are often only a few weeks of the year where there isn’t grass growth.
It is vital that your lawn is able to outcompete moss – a professional Lawn Care Service Programme may contain up to three moss control applications to be sure that control of moss isn’t lost within the wettest and darkest months of the year.
Iron is a key element but, as with any product, it is important that it is used at the correct rates and quantities for a sustainable programme. There are many types of iron, and differing products will assist more so with lawn green-up, whilst others will be better for moss control.
A professional lawn care service will use a highly concentrated moss control which will gain excellent results on moss with the added benefit of improved colour and winter hardiness.
Key takeaway: Correct autumn / winter nutrient and moss treatments are key
4) Reduce Thatch
Keeping thatch under control in a lawn is vital for moss control. Simply not scarifying a lawn (even every other year) is not an option if you don’t want a bigger problem later…
Thatch is the term given to dead matter found between the soil and the grass plants, made up of dead leaves, roots and stems. It is a naturally produced, decomposing material.
Thatch is healthy to a lawn up to a level, but it soon becomes problematic for healthy grass growth. Thatch often spends its winter sat damp in a UK climate, and as we know this then becomes a lovely home to moss by the time we reach late-autumn / early-winter!
Moss is often the symptom with thatch the cause. If thatch build up is an issue, increasing the frequency and intensity of scarification is advisable. Within a Lawn Repair and Renovation service the thatch layer is hit aggressively, before carrying out aeration and overseeding within the same call for multiple benefits.
We gain the best results on this work from mid-August until the end of September. October can work, but can also be a bit soggy for the tidiest work.
Key takeaway: Scarification is not optional for the best lawn care
5) Address Drainage Issues
This is unfortunately a potentially expensive one, but with our lawn care service taking us to more new build properties on clay soils in the area, we’re finding that these gardens are ill-equipped to deal with the intensity of rainfall in recent years. Our weather patterns have become more stuck more frequently, and combined with increasing global temperatures we’re seeing intense rainfall for longer periods of time. We must adapt!
However, the majority of our lawn care service coverage area is on a clay soil regardless. This isn’t a death-sentence for your garden (clay works well for Wimbledon and Lords!) but it will not deal with rain as well as a lighter soil.
If your lawn is often too wet to work on, then you and your lawn care service aren’t going to be able to do anything, while moss is having a great time (assuming the lawn isn’t underwater to the point that even moss doesn’t fancy it – we’ve seen that before too!). We would love to help further, but sometimes, getting the drainage corrected is the underlying issue that is going to unlock the perfect lawn in the future.
Key takeaway: Reasonable to good drainage is a pre-requisite to achieve a good lawn
In Summary
Moss is a constant threat on our lawns when conditions allow. In comparison to sports pitches which often gain adequate light in winter months, our lawns are surrounding by buildings, walls, fences and trees which block light to our lawns and therefore increasing the risk of moss development.
There is never a bad time to start enhancing your lawn. Waiting for spring to roll around is waiting for the problem to get worse – look into what action you can be taking now as preventative work is always better and less painful than cure!
