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Can i compost moss?

Sam76Sam76 Posts: 151
in Problem solving
I have raked the moss from my lawn & have filled my brown bin, plus several bags with it? Can i compost moss, or is that a bad idea because their seeds will spread in the compost? Thanks
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  • Pete.8Pete.8 Posts: 11,340
    Hi Sam
    I done exactly that a few years ago.
    I left the moss for 2 years to mulch down. It looked dead, but a few days after spreading it, it was all bright green and happily growing again.

    Billericay - Essex

    Knowledge is knowing that a tomato is a fruit.
    Wisdom is not putting it in a fruit salad.
  • DovefromaboveDovefromabove Posts: 88,147
    I wouldn't compost it :#  ... but you could use it to line hanging baskets etc.  

    Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.





  • Sam76Sam76 Posts: 151
    Thought not. Thanks!
  • LynLyn Posts: 23,190
    Same here, doesn’t break down, maybe over several years but not as quick as your compost. We don’t put it in the compost bin. 
    Gardening on the wild, windy west side of Dartmoor. 

  • UpNorthUpNorth Posts: 376
    what would someone do with, say, two builders bags full of lawn moss?  :open_mouth:   i'm talking compressed here....and full.

    that's just two lawns.  i could do the others and have ten builders bags, but my back won't take it. ( and that's an electric scarifier).

    WILL IT COMPOST?
    i have had piles of them each year ( i do a lawn or two, each year)....moss mountains.    one that is four years old....covered with ivy long ago, however i picked some up last weekend, see if i had some nice compost or mulch.....NOPE!   four years later the moss is still very much evident and not rotted.  

    so.....what do i do with so much darned moss?  
  • Papi JoPapi Jo Posts: 4,254
    edited March 2020
    Rik56 said:
    Dry it & burn it.

    In many places, burning garden waste is not allowed. It's the case where I live.
    When I scarify my lawn I have a lot of moss to dispose of. It's pretty obvious that moss does not compost (in our domestic compost bins anyway). So I take my moss to the local waste deposit, in the garden waste section. They have industrial (?) composters which I expect does what is necessary to make compost out of almost anything (except plastic Xmas trees, of course).
  • adamadamantadamadamant Posts: 278
    Would a hot composter deal with the moss though do you think?  I have some too.
  • JennyJJennyJ Posts: 10,576
    I've also tried putting moss in the compost bin.  As others have said, it doesn't break down (or not fast enough). My lawn moss and thatch normally goes in the garden waste bin, but I think the scarifying will have to be left until Autumn this year when hopefully the green bin collections will have restarted. If it gets really bad and I feel that I have to scarify, I think I'll stack it separately until it can be collected or taken to the recycling centre (both unavailable just now).
    Doncaster, South Yorkshire. Soil type: sandy, well-drained
  • LynLyn Posts: 23,190
    Waste depots are closed here @Papi Jo
    Gardening on the wild, windy west side of Dartmoor. 

  • Papi JoPapi Jo Posts: 4,254
    Lyn said:
    Waste depots are closed here @Papi Jo
    Here too. I was talking about "normal" times. Looking forward to the end of this nightmare. 
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