[Rowan]

Hi

Can you compost moss?? if so do i need to drown it first and if so how long?

am going to clear the roof and guttering and will have quite a bit.

Ta

[JayG]

A couple of years ago I borrowed a lawn scarifier and put the quite amazing quantity of (mainly) moss on the compost heap, mixing it with other stuff as best I could.
12 months later the moss was very pale and anaemic but still, without question, moss!!
 
I used it at the bottom of the bean trench and underneath the spuds in case it was still viable; by now I presume it has done the decent thing and disappeared!

As for drowning it you will have to wait for someone else who has tried that; mine now goes in the green recycling bin; life's too short........

[madcat]

I'd go with the mixing it with other stuff - we did the same with moss off the lawn and didn't mix it enough.  It formed a slimy blanket and didn't rot very well at all.  Ugh.  It was the old problem of too much of one thing.  The following year, lesson learned and mixed well with garrotta and kitchen waste, no problem.

But the fat pads of moss that come off the roof and out of the guttering (thank you mr blackbird!!)  mixed in with the general compost disappear fine. 

[Goosegirl]

Living in mossland farming territory and having one large and two small lawns with some shady bits, I moss-killed and scarified twice and I had umpteen barrowloads of moss. Having tried it as a mulch one year where it unfortunately continued to live, this year I put it in fortnightly in my recycling bin. I might try the peelings and Garrota method next time but I will need  about four more compost bins!

[sunshineband]

We found it needed to be very well mixed indeed in the compost bin to avoid coming out looking like, well... moss tbh

Tough stuff

[madcat]

Does anyone else have blackbirds that sort through the gutters, chucking moss and 'stuff' out onto the path?  They are  ....  thorough ....

[mumofstig]

I have birdies that do that......but despite the mess on the front path...they don't do enough of it

During all that heavy rain the gutters/valleys became blocked and water backed up through the roof and through the ceiling The gutters do get cleaned out..but there is just so much moss on the roof     Does anybody Know why some houses get it and some don't...all the roofs in the terrace  face the same way, some have a lot of moss, some very little....it puzzles me :blink:

[madcat]

It is the roofs with the grittier roofs in our run that get the moss.   The slates don't and the steep roof at the end doesnt.  Ours is worst on the east side of the chimney pot ..

[philsmith1967]

Moss usual grows on the north facing side of a roof - the side which gets little or no sunshine. It also grows on flat roofs that don't drain very well

[JayG]

Does anyone else have blackbirds that sort through the gutters, chucking moss and 'stuff' out onto the path?  They are  ....  thorough ....

Round here the blackbirds seem to concentrate on promising-looking stuff on the ground (like mulch and grass cuttings carefully spread on the raspberries). Sweeping it back every few days helps keep me fit!

The real culprits seem to be Magpies; I have watched them picking out all the loose mortar from the ridge tiles on the houses across the road looking for food; daren't tell the neighbours as I'm sure they already think I'm nuts!

[RichardA]

moss out survived the dinasaurs -- nothing stops it.
R

[madcat]

Could be the maggies too ... plenty of them around, although I try to discourage.

I cant really complain - although when sweeping round I'm afraid I do!   

[compostqueen]

Chickens are a good tool for moss removal from lawns  They get the whole lot our for you and then you can lose it in the council bin or spread it out of the way under trees and shrubs. I find it doesn't compost very readily at all I've found. I've inherited an extremely mossy lawn and the chooks are being strip grazed over it all til it's gone. It does now resemble the Somme but at least it can now breathe 

[Christine]

Moss doesn't compost any better than dandelion roots, dock roots, creeping buttercup, mares tail or bind weed. Not something I ever try to compost.