moss as a lawn

by Susan Weathers
(Marion, North Carolina )

I have moss growing in place of grass,I like the moss. How do I enhance and keep the moss. My yard is small with trees surrounding the yard. I live in Western North Carolina.

Doug says that moss loves the shade, dampness, and slightly acidic soils. So the way to ensure great moss growth is to provide these conditions. :-)

I accidentally created a great little moss bed a few years ago in a similar situation (I didn't want it there) and I'm about to do this treatment this year in my own garden in an area I do want the moss to thrive in)

1) I kill all grass by spraying vinegar on it (several times). I tend to use the 7% pickling vinegar but you can achieve the same results by using regular vinegar and adding a cup of cooking oil per gallon of vinegar (mix them when warm and spray immediately) This will burn-off the grass and when it starts to regrow - respray again. I did this a few times in one area of the garden - weakened the grass to death and (accidentally as I wasn't even thinking of the acidification I was doing) acidified the soil. The next spring, I had a great crop of moss there (I tilled it in but that's another story). This year, I'm going to kill the grass in a future patio where I want moss to thrive between the paving stones. I figure this will work nicely.

You have moss so the trick now is to encourage it with a bit of compost (yea, moss loves compost). :-) But not a lot - you just want to give it a bit of a food source but not provide serious levels of plant nutrition - I'm talking sprinkling because this isn't a big feeder in a traditional gardening sense. I note this is totally optional and not necessary.


And remove all grass or weed competition using the vinegar treatment. Moss should colonize.

The other (and last trick) is to take some of the moss you have growing now. A small hand-full is fine. Whiz it up in a blender with warmish water (baby bottle temp) or milk (according to reports that the milk feeds the baby spores) - pour this in a watering can and water the bare soils (post grass killing) where you want new moss to grow. Spread the little guys around.

The other thing you can do is simply move small tufts of moss to these bare ares (this works nicely) and keep the newly sown areas dampish with daily waterings.

Try not to walk on this area to allow the spores and plantlets to grow. After establishment, moss will handle limited foot traffic.

Have fun with it. I'm right behind you doing exactly these things and it will be a new article coming likely next year.

The thing I will ask you to do for us is make a note of this url and give us a progress report later on in the summer. Please! :-)