Garden Journal - Raking Moss Out of the Lawn - 10 Minute Blitz

I thought I'd try stealing a gardening idea posted by @zakludick - instead of wiping out a whole day gardening, and then feeling complacent (and exhausted) for a week or three, do a 10-minute garden blitz every day.

The idea is that 10 minutes is a short enough time that you can fit it into most days even when you're really busy, but that over a period of time, making it a habit will start adding up and really making a difference. My garden really needs that right now !

The one variation I've made to the plan is to allow myself to have a day off if it's chucking down with rain. This is England, after all !

A big part of the 10--minute blitz is to have a plan. Set up in advance what you're going to work on, and make sure that everything you need is ready to hand.

In this case, the photo above is the "start" area. Our lawn has been badly neglected for far, far too long, so it's time to give it some love.

The goal is to rake as much of the moss out of the lawn as possible. The mud on the left of the photo is a sort of unofficial path where the lawn has been worn away by foot traffic. Humans, cats and foxes all seem to follow the same slightly curved track across the lawn, not sure why ! On the right are the loganberries and blackberries, and you can see a patch where the lawn seems to have died off completely.

These two photos above are close-ups of the state of the lawn. About all that can be said for it is that it's mostly green ! There's not much grass, but quite a lot of weeds, and a huge amount of deep, spongy moss.

My trusty spring-tined rake. The only tool I'll need apart from gloves.

After 10 minutes of vigorous raking, I'd cleared an area of most of the moss. It's not a huge area, but it's a start. I also didn't want to do too much until I could see what would be left, and give the grass a week or two to see if it shoed signs of recovery. You can see the monster pile of moss that came out !

This is a close-up of what was left. There's still some moss there, it's impossible to get all of it out without totally destroying the grass, but with most of it cleared the grass should be able to spread out again.

The clumpy plants with heart-shaped leaves are violets. I actually like them, but here I'm treating them as weeds and pulling them up. They're rampant throughout the garden, and although they make lovely pretty flowers I can afford to lose a few of them ! The flowers are edible and tasty, and young leaves can be added to salads, but most of the rest of the plant is toxic. I'm not sure if it can be used to dye cloth, but I might give it a try at some point.

The photo above is the final result. Yes, it looks like a scraggy mess, but a huge amount of moss has gone. I am hoping the grass will recover now it's got space to grow, but it is quite possible I'll have to re-seed it or even totally re-turf.

The clump of bright green plant in the entre of the picture is self-seeded marjoram (or it might be oregano). Yummy and definitely worth keeping ! I'll trim some of the leggier stems, and maybe find some way to put other herbs near it so it gets shaped into a mini-herb bed at the edge of the lawn.

When I've got the time and spare cash (probably at some point in the summer) I'm hoping to put a brick path down where the mud track to the end of the garden currently is !

All photos by me