All Mossed Up..

I wonder how many people say they love their garden and really mean what they say? Do they really mean they 'love' it when the Spring/ summer flowers are in full bloom, or do they mean they love it as they love life itself? They say they don't mind getting dirty hands and muddy shoes/boots as they laboriously weed it week after week, year after year.. But how many remember to feed it before it shows signs of sheer exhaustion and starvation by turning yellow brown.. We feed birds, animals and humans, but in all honesty, do we feed our gardens as regularly ? You never hear anyone say " By heavens,, that grass is putting on the weight."

I have only recenty succumbed to ' Help in your garden' adverts, and invited a company to come and give me their advice. We all like to think our very own garden is a little treasure don't we, but the comments I received were not exactly favourable.. and not to treasure either.. for example.." Your garden is in a very poor state, and badly infested with weeds. The grass no longer grows in many parts, and the whole is in need of a thorough 'going over'. You have Daises, Dandelions, Clover, Buttercup, Selfheal, Sorrell , Woodrush, ( scored out) L. Celandine, Speedwell, and Groundelder.. We recommend Hollow-Tine, and Scarification.. Not to mention Moss infestation.!
Wow! I can tell you, this scared me.! Ah, but maybe scarification means, each time I go into it, I should shout BOO or something.. Yes that's bound to scare it ok..
But alas, not so. I tried it no no avail.. The Clover just changed colour.. I phoned them and said " Your hired "! and now after 10 days, the results are not spectacular, or even remotely noticeable, but it's early days, and perhaps next week my lawns will be lush and green and healthy. I told myself. ' Patience ! . If Rome wasn't built in a day, how can I expect my lawn to renew itself in 10 ' !

Laat year, before I found this wonderful company, I bought weed & Feed, and Moss Killer, plus a machine to spread it evenly, and it was a disaster.! The machine was a self assembly, easy to use, contraption, which, when I assembled it, was slightly lop-sided ... a minor detail I hadn't noticed until I had finished the whole job, and waited and watched in anticipation and high hopes to see my garden in it's all weed/ moss free all glory, and all my own work.! Not so. I had unwittingly distributed the 'killer' badly - due of course to the misalignment of the machine. But I'm only a girl, and surely not expected to know about lopsidedness. . So, a few weeks later, the moss turned into a huge mound of dark brown fur-like mess, the weeds didn't disappear as expected, and new weeds raised their ugly heads as I watched.. Worst of all, the whole lawn had dark brown stripeswhere it had been over-fed by he 'killer machine' contents.

On relating my story to a few DIY'ers,, I was told by all of them that I must rake the dead moss out, burn it, or dispose of it carefully to avoid the spores escaping, ( what? spores from dead moss) ? and then, smooth out the raked patches , put down new soil, rake it in well, apply new grass seed, water it daily, but not overdo it. It all sounded simple - until I started. Question one.. Did I have compost.? Um no. Ok. Grass seed? Um. No. So I raked, picked up and bagged, and took the offending moss to the Tip, bought new grass seed and compost, scattered it, and once again ..waited.

Many weeks later to my delight, I saw what looked like some green baby hair-like things growing in a few patches. Hey! It had worked! And it showed for everyone to see. but the moss was still lurking underneath for the naked eye to see quite clearly. I had used all the energy I could expend on this lawn, so I just scattered more grass seed over the not too well raked moss patches, and once again. .waited. Not really much of a success, but here I am 15 months on, with thinner moss. not quite so obvious now that it has some top cover of a now slightly darker baby green grass mingled with the brown of the moss, and I must admit, the two colours actually look most attractive together! Dark brown and baby green. Nice! It was hard work, and although I had decided,' Well, it's only a garden' and not worth spending more time money and energy on, enough is enough,' and I am glad I did succumb to the Company who came to do it for me. Now it does look lovely.. and it's green. After all, I love my garden don't I?

Anyone want to buy a Moss Spreader..?