Why do I have moss on my lawn?

Significant moss infestation on a lawn is a sign that the lawn is not healthy. Conditions such as shade, poor soil fertility, soil compaction and poor drainage cause the grass to thin out, giving moss the space and opportunity to colonise your lawn.

Poor drainage leads to rainwater accumulating on the surface of your lawn, which is ideal for moss. This is because moss does not have roots but lives on moisture that sits on top of the ground if your lawn doesn’t have adequate drainage. As a result, if poor drainage makes your lawn too damp, moss can take hold and spread across its surface. Regular year round rainfall in central Scotland means that successful long term moss removal requires addressing the cause of any excessively damp ground conditions on your lawn in addition to repeated applications of moss control treatment, otherwise the problem will keep coming back.

What we do

After we have sprayed your lawn with a moss-killing treatment, you will typically see the moss dying off within 72 hours. The dead moss, which will have turned from green to brown/black, should then be removed from your lawn. You could try to do this by raking or we can scarify your lawn, which will save you the time and effort and typically provides a more thorough result. Getting rid of the dead moss is a necessary step but one that can leave a lawn looking temporarily thinned out. To remedy this and help your lawn regenerate with sustained green growth, after scarifying we could aerate the soil under your lawn, overseed your lawn with new grass seed and, if required, apply a layer of top dressing soil.

See also: Aeration, Scarifying, Overseeding and Top Dressing