Moss

Anglegrinder

We live in a 1950s semi-detached house and a few years ago my neighbour moved his roof rainwater down-pipe from the garage side to the boundary fence side adjoining my house. Previously the water just flowed down a small channel beside the driveway to the footpath, similar to most of the houses on the road. At the time he also got his driveway and most of the garden tarmacadammed. A small planting area was included covered in plastic membrane for weed control. The rainwater is now disposed of into a small area of soil near the down-pipe adjacent to the boundary fence. No provision was made for soak-away. My garden comprises a central lawn with some shrubs around the edges and a driveway at the garage side. I have noticed over the past year or two that there is a lot of moss appearing in my garden in an area up to 3 meters from the boundary fence. Could this be caused because there is no scope for evaporation on my neighbour's side causing the soil on my side to become saturated and hence the moss? Do I have any scope for redress. I spoke to my neighbour at the time of the change but without success.

_Brian

Moss is in every garden where it’s not treated regularly.
It seems to be getting steadily worse as our years seem to contain fewer dry spells.

If the area is a swamp then yes I’d say something needs to be done, if it’s just moss I’d say your garden is typical of most Irish gardens at this stage.

Hocus Focus

I have read on this forum previously, that the law says that if a landowner makes changes to the drainage characteristics on his property, causing ingress of water to his neighbour's property, then it is his responsibility to rectify any resulting problems.

Anglegrinder

Thank you Brian and Hocus. In response to Brian I should have said that the moss is confined to an area near the boundary fence and does not occur elsewhere in the front garden even though same soil, sunlight and precipitation. Neither does it occur in the rear garden with similar conditions.

macraignil

I think you would be very unlikely to be able to make a legal case that the moss growth was down to the actions of the neighbor and there is little the court could count as damages against your neighbor as moss doesn't actually cause any harm and grows naturally in a damp climate like Ireland without any assistance.

Anglegrinder

Thanks macraignil. But it doesn't grow everywhere.

Lumen

But surely there will be less sunlight near the fence?

First try and establish how wet the soil is. This is a perfect time of year as we've had unusually heavy rain.

I don't know that you can blame water alone. I have an area of grass that was growing over effectively a pond (a drainage pipe was terminating underneath and the water couldn't drain anywhere). You could wobble the grass like a blancmange and yet the grass looked perfect - no moss.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bhITiGhwlPM

Hocus Focus

Consider the orientation of your garden; is the mossy area shaded from the sun at any part of the day, i.e.is it to the north side of the boundary?
Has there been any change to the height of the boundary fence, or its ability to allow sunlight to pass through?
The answers to these questions might point to the cause of the moss, although the added rainwater is probably contributing.

_Brian

I think you can only expect something to be done if your garden is becoming a swamp as a result of the drainage next door.
If your not seeing an alarming increase in dampness in that specific area compared to the remainder of the garden then you’ve noting to redress.

Having moss in your garden is a problem in Ireland, it’s not impossible to deal with. Even dry gardens see moss now.

There are plenty of products to deal with moss available, I’d advise go out and get something to deal with this.

If your garden isn’t being ruined with wet it’s not worth getting into a “thing” with your neighbors over moss, that would be petty in the extreme.

Hocus Focus

macraignil wrote: »

I think you would be very unlikely to be able to make a legal case that the moss growth was down to the actions of the neighbor and there is little the court could count as damages against your neighbor as moss doesn't actually cause any harm and grows naturally in a damp climate like Ireland without any assistance.

I'm not suggesting going to law on this, but it is useful to know the rights and wrongs of it.

Anglegrinder

The house faces east so the fence is on the north side of the garden. Thus the mossy area gets full sun for about half a day while the sun is passing from east to south.

From the feedback it seems that there isn't much I can do about the apparent cause, only with the effects.

macraignil

I like moss in the garden. It gives a more mature look to hard surfaces and provides shelter and food for a greater variety of microbes and other wildlife than more recently evolved grasses and flowering plants. At this time of year it provides colour when many other garden plants are a bit dull. I don't think you should be doing anything to eliminate it unless you find it is making an area hazardous to slip on in wet weather which could be possible if it was growing on steps or a path. I don't understand why there is so much anti moss sentiment out there.