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Moss in 'lawn'
Collareddove
Posts: 173
This winter/spring I have noticed an awful lot of moss in my lawn. I always do have moss but nowhere near the amount I have now.
I usually refer to my lawn as a 'wildflower lawn'. ie I do not cut it from late April (or earlier if the yellow rattle self seeded plants are showing), until September.
Is it the excessive rain we've had this winter which has caused such an explosion of moss? Or maybe the drought in the summer killed off some of the wild flowers and grass so moss was able to colonise the bare patches? I'm doing a Miss Marple here, trying to find the cause! Will the moss finally take over? ...
I usually refer to my lawn as a 'wildflower lawn'. ie I do not cut it from late April (or earlier if the yellow rattle self seeded plants are showing), until September.
Is it the excessive rain we've had this winter which has caused such an explosion of moss? Or maybe the drought in the summer killed off some of the wild flowers and grass so moss was able to colonise the bare patches? I'm doing a Miss Marple here, trying to find the cause! Will the moss finally take over? ...
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Posts
If conditions suit then planting can be done to match the conditions.
If you have those drought conditions that many areas had, it won't have helped the flowers, so yes - it's a combination of suitable conditions for the moss to become the dominant feature.
You may find you'll constantly be replacing and/or reviewing the type of wild flowers you have if you have very dry ground in summer and it's wetter in winter.
It sounds like you have clay soil if that's the case. It's only like that in those drier parts of the country, in wetter parts the clay doesn't dry out over summer.
I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
Moss will stop growing in hot dry weather and may go brown, but it won't die. Allowing the other plants to grow tall will both hide the moss and reduce the amount of photosynthesis the moss can do.
If you have a "wild" lawn, you have to take what nature throws at you. Red in tooth and claw!
"Have nothing in your garden that you don't know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful."
That might be a contributor to the cause.
If you want to go one step further and arrest the culprit, why not raise the pH. I have never done this. On unplanted ground lime is OK, but I would be careful when putting onto growing plants. Chalk, or ground limestone might be better.
Certainly the more exciting wild flowers favour high pH.
"Have nothing in your garden that you don't know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful."
I've just looked it up on Tinternet. There are different species of moss, some of which flourish in badly drained acid soil and shady conditions, and others which prefer a pH of over 7 (ie alkaline), and sun. (Why didn't I know that before?)
With a wild flower meadow, I think we have to accept what comes. Last year mine had loads of yellow rattle and wild carrot. This year... who knows...
Edited to say: another article, while agreeing with the above about pH, says moss prefers soils with low fertility - which suggests it ought to do particularly well in a wild flower meadow, where low fertility is the aim.