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Moss in borders

Digging-itDigging-it Posts: 117
in Problem solving
Hi all, could I get rid of moss in my flower borders by thickly mulching it with leaves or compost? Or would that just invigorate it all the more? Just hoping that excluding light would kill it off. Thanks 

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  • bédébédé Posts: 3,095
    edited April 2023
    I have spagnum moss in the crown of some Sedum "herbstfreude".  A very pernickety picking out with fingers &/or a sharp stick is all that works.  Apart from commercial mosskiller (not the place for sulphate of iron).

    Burying the crowns deeply with fine leafmould or compost might work.

    If its just on the soil between plants, then hoeing works.
     location: Surrey Hills, England, ex-woodland acidic sand.
    "Have nothing in your garden that you don't know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful."
  • Digging-itDigging-it Posts: 117
    Thanks bede, (sorry I can’t find the accents on my keyboard), I do pick up or scrape off what I can but it seems like an endless job. I start doing it thoroughly but after sometime I get less enthusiastic and it always returns. I mulched my borders over winter with chopped up leaves and it seems to have worked where the leaves haven’t blown away, I just hope I haven’t “fed”the moss so that it’ll return with a vengeance.
    Btw, love sedums! 
  • bédébédé Posts: 3,095
    I'm not fussy about accents, just as long as you don't think me 'venerable'.

    I have just followed your idea and buried my moss/sedums in an inch of fine compost-heap compost.  It looks better already, and I think it will work as a cure not just cosmetically.
     location: Surrey Hills, England, ex-woodland acidic sand.
    "Have nothing in your garden that you don't know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful."
  • Digging-itDigging-it Posts: 117
    Let’s hope it doesn’t give the moss a boost. Ironically my soil is quite sandy but over the winter time I always get a build up of moss on bare soil in my herbaceous borders, generally in the hot summers it will die off somewhat. 
    But mulching is a win win anyway for the plants.

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