Of Moss and Men

I mowed our front lawn Friday afternoon. Before I started up our rechargeable electric mower, I went around and inspected and picked up debris. Most of the grass was a rich green and starting to get longish, despite the extremely cold winter and recent snow. What I noticed as I went around picking up the smaller twigs and fir cones and one tennis ball dropped and forgotten in a corner under some fir cones, I noticed a terrible thing had occurred to our once flawless turf.

We had moss!!

Oh no! I had eliminated most of the weeds last spring and thought I could do the same with the few we had popping up now but I didn't plan on battling moss as well! I went out to the greenhouse to tell Hubby.

He was disconnecting the charger and getting ready to roll the mower down the ramp when I yelled, "We have MOSS!!!" He looked at me like I had announced the sinking of the Titanic.

"Don't be so dramatic," he said. "I saw it. It's worse in the back yard," he said, gesturing over his shoulder.

True, the back yard was a disaster -- bald spots, an assortment of weeds, cones, small branches, clumps of moss -- just about everything. But we agreed last year we we'd tackle the back yard this year. The front yard was going into the maintenance period -- weed, feed, water and mow.

"Here's what we'll do," he said evenly. "And don't worry!" He then went on to explain we'd get some good lawn product in the morning. But for now, he was raising the wheels on the mower to make the first cut a little higher. "Then the day before we put on the moss-killer, I'll lower the wheels and you can cut it again." I thought it over.

"Ok, it's all set. Have at it!" He stepped back from the machine and I pushed it out to the front. He busied himself with moving some pots while I mowed. I really like this mower. No need to rake, bag, dispose or compost, since it's a mulcher. It's automatically composting every time I mow. And because it's a non-gas rechargeable, no trips to the gas station, no cords to tangle under one's feet, and it's easy to operate. Hubby finds the only drawback is the fact it's non-self propelling and it's too hard for him to push it uphill with his heart condition.

The next day we went to the Fred Meyer in town and picked up two huge bags of a Scotts granulated product to spread on the lawn. We have a small spreader, which is very effective. I also think the granulated is less wasteful than the liquid applications.

Monday I'm going to cut the front again, a bit lower to expose the moss. Then Tuesday afternoon, when our brief sunny period will be replaced by clouds rolling in, I'll spread the front yard with the Scotts. I have not much grass to mow in the back, and since it's in such rough shape, I'll skip the mowing altogether and spread the Scotts product on it, too. Wednesday sometime the rain will arrive and wash the chemicals into the soil.

In a week or so, we'll see what we have left to work with and go from there.