Christmas is approaching, outdoor decorations are showing up around the valley, and those beautiful colors of deep red and green are making their appearance to grace the holiday season. I love the potted spruce on the back patio and the huge deep red poinsettia we found while shopping that's set ceremoniously on our living room coffee table.
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| Rogue Valley Gardener |
However lovely these plants may be as they make their colorful statements around our house, there is one green plant that is turning into an ugly backyard culprit at this time each year—MOSS. I can put up with it, even appreciate its rich texture and color when it stays politely underneath the Redbud or adorns the edges of the flat stones in our walkway, but it has become a wide-ranging discoloring pest in areas of my lawn, and worse than that, on my patio.
This rascal seems to disappear during the warm, dry months when I am outdoors the most and most likely to be dealing with landscape issues, only to reappear after the winter rains have soaked the concrete for a few weeks. Then, while I am relaxing in my living room with a book in hand and from time to time enjoying a look out the window at our backyard landscape, I notice a strange green glow coming from the patio.
What is it? Primordial ooze? NOPE, it is MOSS.
Who brought it? The dog does his dirty work on the lawn (another story for another day). The only other wild critters who might carry mossy green spores around the world are Rudolph, Comet, Cupid, Dancer, Prancer, et al. They’re not due for a couple of weeks yet. Blame it on the wind (or Martians?). Whatever the case, it has to go. I have put up with it for too many seasons, and it is now invasive and damaging to the patio. It is digging itself in most vigorously on the exposed rock surfaces, threatening to pop the small rocks out of their concrete bed and turn the concrete itself back to sand.
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Fortunately, moss is not too difficult to deal with. Now is the time to go after it, while it is active and the moisture on the patio will create a natural soaking medium for the killing agent. Fortunately also, the moss can be killed with soap or a ferrous sulfate product, both readily available at a local store. Try 4 ounces of ULTRA DAWN liquid dish soap to a gallon of water, or purchase a moss-kill product. You might feel best about the soap, but the chemicals (iron and sulfur) in the moss killers are not harmful to nature and in fact are food for grasses that improve their color.
I will go out soon and do my duty and feel good about myself for having done so…but right now I have a sniffle, and it's cold, and damp, and…
