Moss is typically present when the lawn is shaded or the soil is acidic - neither condition is well suited to the growing of a lush, healthy lawn. If you have heavy shade, you may want to look into a lawn alternative, perhaps some sort of groundcover. While certain types of turf seeds are more shade tolerant than others, none do well in heavy or mostly shade.

And most turf grasses prefer neutral soil conditions. If your soil is acidic (a pH test will determine), a common method of altering pH is to apply lime - this will also serve to kill off the moss as well. There are other methods of removing moss also - iron is a common application (Lilly Miller Moss Out) or a few soap-based products (Safer's or LM Worry-Free Moss Control).

Once the moss has been killed the lawn should be thoroughly raked or dethatched to remove the dead material. You can overseed at this point. No tilling is necesary but you may wish to bring in some screened compost or quality soil to fill any low spots and even out the surface. This also provides a decent seed bed as well. Whatever remains of the existing lawn will grow through the soil - about 1/2 -3/4 of an inch is all that is necessary.

I've planted lawns from scratch after amending soil in the hot S.California climate. Now after years of lawn neglect in the Pacific NW, I own the lawn that the above poster described. It's a large lawn -- nearly an acre -- and has no sprinklers. This stressed the grass during the 2 hot months (Aug./Sept). Yes, I did lots of hand watering & moved a sprinkler around. Contrary to urban legend, you DO need sprinklers (and air conditioning) in Western WA, even if only occasionally. The person who landscaped this yard before we bought the house 15 years ago must have been a bit crazy to plant so much grass and not include sprinklers.

No one seems able to answer the question of WHY the moss needs to be raked out after it's killed (w/lime or iron - I like to stick with organics). We all know that raking removes most of the moss, but not all. Why not just leave the dead moss to decompose under a covering of compost and plant the new seed directly into that? If you say the moss needs to go because it will regrow, I don't think that's a good answer because (as I said) some of the moss will be left behind no matter how diligently you rake it out.

Please explain why the dead moss needs to be removed and also why the dead moss can't serve as good nutrients once it's decomposed.

Thanks!

Almost on the same situation as above,.. I fight with moss on my lawn every year--this year has been the worse I have seen since it had constantly rained from fall up to now (of course I am in Washington State Zone 8). Top left photo is the front yard (taken after dethatching which I do manually every year) and the rest of them are pictures of the back/side yard. Above the retaining wall behind the fence is a wetland--when it rains all the water dumps on the drain rocks between the lawn and the retaining wall (drainage would probably have to be redone--water flows to the drain grating at both ends at certain level but most stay stagnant). Also, another thing to point out is the plastic edging all the way around each lawn (I like the clean look of it and not having to use the edge trimmer at all)--is the plastic edging contributing to a soggy/mossy lawn?

The front lawn gets the morning sun and the backyard gets the afternoon sun but the property is surrounded with tress. This year, I have more moss than grass (from all the rain?)

I have a surprise birthday party coming for my wife in a month (in the backyard) and I am thinking of reseeding this week. I am thinking of dressing the lawn with topsoil/peat moss without removing the moss and applying the seed (after topsoil/peat moss). Will this work and would it be enough time for the party or should I just wait until the party is over and do it the right way?

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Grass seed needs to be in direct contact with the soil to germinate. it will not grow on decomposing moss. And you do NOT need to apply any moss killer to remove - it will rake up easily so why add more unnecessary chemicals when a little bit of elbow grease will do the trick. If you are thorough in your raking, you will remove 95% or more. The moss will regrow if the conditions it prefers are right, not because you may have left a few scraps in place!! The moss can be discarded or added to your compost pile if you absolutely need to recycle it.

Having lived in western Washington all my life and with several decades as a consulting horticulturist under my belt, I will disagree with your contention that we need inground lawn sprinklers or air conditioning :-) That is not an urban legend but only the observation of someone who is used to these unnecessary devices!! There are only a few days each year that the summer temp exceeds 85F and while hotter than most PNW'ers prefer, it is very tolerable without AC. And we have virtually no summer humidity which makes it even more tolerable.

Very few gardens here have inground sprinkler systems - they are just not needed and seldom programmed correctly if they are present. Most long time residents who are not lawn-obsessed will allow their lawn to go dormant in summer as it is inclined to do. It recovers/re-greens rapidly with even the odd summer rainstorm or very quickly in fall. And it conserves water to allow that to happen - even in the PNW, water is a finite commodity and we can have watering restrictions. I have never intentionally watered my lawn in all my years of gardening. It may receive a small amount of overspray when I water adjacent planting beds but that's it.