Gardening Landscaping Lawn Care

How to Get Rid of Moss in Your Lawn

If you've been wondering how to get rid of moss in the lawn, there are various simple ways to do so, either naturally or chemically.

Luckily, mosses are very shallow-rooted plants, so immediate removal is not particularly hard. However, for permanent moss removal, getting to the root of its growth will be essential in keeping it at bay.

While moss is not harmful to your grass, you may want to remove it for aesthetic reasons. With spring and summer approaching, now is the best time to conquer any moss in your yard because this is when it is actively growing.

Here is your ultimate guide to getting rid of moss in your lawn.

Patch of moss growing in lawn with surrounding mulch

The Spruce / Steven Merkel

Why Moss Grows in Lawns

If you want to eliminate moss, it's key to know why it's there in the first place. There are many reasons why moss appears in a turf-grass lawn:

  • Low soil pH (acidic soil)
  • Low nutrient levels in the soil
  • Poor drainage and damp soil
  • Excessive shade
  • Compacted soil

Tips

Conditions that encourage moss also discourage grass from growing. Correcting the conditions that favor moss growth is the only way to permanently get rid of moss in your lawn.

How to Get Rid of Moss in Your Lawn

Not all these supplies are necessarily required, but some of the tools and materials you may need to get rid of moss in your lawn include:

Materials and tools remove moss from a lawn

The Spruce / Photo Illustration by Hilary Allison

Rake Your Lawn

Lawn being raked to pull moss from ground closeup

The Spruce / Steven Merkel

You may be able to rake out the moss given it is shallow-rooted. A brisk raking with a bow rake or a leaf rake may pull the moss from the soil. This will work best when the lawn is moist. Raking several times from different angles is the best way to loosen moss from the soil.

Try an Organic Solution

Garden sprayer applying organic water solution on moss patch

The Spruce / Steven Merkel

Fill a garden sprayer with 2 gallons of lukewarm water and mix in a box of baking soda, then spray this solution on the patches of moss for an organic method of moss removal.

Another remedy is to use dish soap to kill moss. Simply mix ordinary dish soap (Dawn Ultra is a preferred product) and water in a garden sprayer (5 ounces per gallon of water). There are also commercial horticultural soaps, such as Safer brand, that will kill moss.

Spray With Chemical Moss Killer

Chemical moss killer sprayed on moss patch with pump sprayer

The Spruce / Steven Merkel

The best chemical moss killers include iron sulfate (ferrous ammonium sulfate) and glyphosate. Do note, iron sulfate will not kill your grass, but glyphosate will. For this reason, only apply chemical moss killers as a spot treatment. To use, mix according to label directions (around 1 ounce per gallon of water).

Chemical moss killer is by no means a long-term solution because as soon as the chemical drains through the soil or runs off, the area will once more become overrun with moss unless the underlying conditions are corrected.

Safety First

If you use chemical moss killers (herbicides), always wear gloves, safety goggles, and a mask. Also, keep in mind that runoff from these products is dangerous to aquatic life, so never spray them on concrete and other surfaces where runoff is likely.

Remove Thatch and Aerate the Lawn

Thatch grass blades over patch of moss in lawn

The Spruce / Steven Merkel

Evaluate the role thatch buildup might be playing, as thatch can prevent water from draining properly through the soil. This can help prevent future moss growth. Thatch removal, known as dethatching, involves hard manual raking with a sharp-toothed bow rake or a special dethatching rake. Many people prefer to hire a professional service or rent a power dethatcher to do this labor-intensive job.

After dethatching, always perform an annual aeration. This will help reduce soil compaction and improve drainage and air circulation, which makes the soil more conducive to grass and less friendly to moss. When to aerate depends on the type of lawn grass. Aerate cool-season grasses in early fall and warm-season grasses in mid-spring to early summer.

Evaluate Sun/Shade

Newly removed tree with stump in the ground

The Spruce / Ana Cadena

Address the issue of any excessive shade to get rid of moss. You can open up affected areas to more sunlight through tree removal, or by having some of the larger, lower branches pruned off.

Most grasses do best with six hours or more of direct sunlight daily, though some shade-tolerant grasses will accept three or four hours. In your tree pruning, strive to provide sunlight in those amounts.

Check Your Soil

Acidic soil being evaluated in hand

The Spruce / Steven Merkel

Check your soil because many moss infestations are traced to poor soil conditions—especially pH and nutritional problems. Send in a sample to your local Cooperative Extension service so they can test your soil for you, stating that you want to remove moss from your lawn and will need information on soil pH and nutrient content.

Moss-infested lawns often have acidic soil. It's not so much that moss likes acid soil, but rather that turf grasses react badly to acid conditions. But don't amend the soil with agricultural lime (an alkaline powder that will reduce acidity) unless the soil test indicates a need for it.

The soil test may have other recommendations for how to best adjust the soil pH, such as topdressing with wood ash.

Finally, the soil test will give you valuable information on the nutrients in your soil, making recommendations for fertilizers and other amendments to add to make it suitable for growing turfgrass.

Consider Drainage

Shovel sticks out in ground on a personal plot
Ivan-balvan / Getty Images

Address any drainage problems caused by high clay content (your soil test will indicate if this is an issue). Water tends to percolate slowly through overly clayey soils, and that can lead to visible puddling. This kind of drainage issue can be fixed by regularly amending the soil (for example with humus or another organic material) to make it more friable.

Poor drainage can be caused by other factors in addition to clay content. For example, if the lawn receives a lot of foot traffic (i.e. children playing), your problem could be soil compaction—a problem that can be addressed by more frequent lawn aeration.

More serious drainage problems occur when the underlying subsoil is very dense and impermeable. In this is the case, you may need to change the contours of your yard to help excess water drain away, install a French drain, or dig up the entire lawn to change the composition of the underlying subsoil.

Plant Different Grass Species

Tall fescue grass

The Spruce / David Beaulieu

Plant a different grass variety because sometimes this is the issue, especially in cases where too much shade is a problem. Tall fescue grass, for example, is a relatively shade-tolerant grass that may crowd out moss once it becomes established.

To switch grass, you can kill off the existing lawn and then plant a new one by seed or sod. You can also repeatedly top-seed using shade-tolerant grass. To repair bare patches, loosen the soil in those spots, and places where moss has taken hold, and sprinkle new seed over these areas.

Over a year or two, these areas will flourish as shade-tolerant and moss-resistant. After planting, follow recommended care procedures, especially when fertilizing.

Do remember no turfgrass species will thrive in areas of total dense shade. Unless these areas get three or four hours of sunlight or bright filtered light, plant an entirely different ground cover plant, which will also block moss growth.

Tips for Keeping Your Lawn Moss-Free

Keeping your lawn moss-free really comes down to addressing the root cause. In addition, some other tips include growing new grass in bare patches, improving your soil quality by using soil amendments, and monitoring drainage post moss-removal.

FAQ
  • What will kill moss, but not grass?

    Iron sulfate will kill moss but will not harm your grass. Iron sulfate is the active ingredient in chemical moss killer.

  • What is the fastest way to get rid of moss in the lawn?

    The fastest way to get rid of moss in your lawn is by using a chemical moss killer containing iron sulfate (ferrous ammonium sulfate) and glyphosate.

  • Should I let moss grow in my lawn?

    While moss is not harmful to grass, moss does indicate that the conditions are not favorable for the type of grass you have for your lawn. For example, moss may signal poor soil conditions.