Slippery, Slidery

If you have a brick walkway or flower bed borders made of brick at your house, they’re probably covered with moss after all the rain we’ve have this spring. From out of nowhere comes moss to cover your beautiful red brick, making them slick as a peeled onion at the least, fuzzy at the worst.  So what do you do about it?

Obviously, be careful where you walk ’cause a foot placed carelessly on green brick will slide out from under you before you can think to grab something to hold on to. When the rains do eventually stop, you’re left with fairly ugly brick. And bear in mind, what you eliminate on the surface is just that, on the surface. Moss will survive to return another day (much like that impossible to kill ivy) unless you kill it all the way to its roots, so to speak.

You will need just a few simple tools: water, bleach, a broom, safety goggles, vinegar, and a spray bottle. Mix equal amounts of bleach and water and put the resulting mixture in your spray bottle. Get your goggles on and make sure there are no children or pets in the vicinity. Use your broom to get rid of as much of the surface moss as possible, making it easier for the bleach mixture to penetrate the actual source of the moss.

Spray the bleach mixture onto the affected areas, and I mean really soak it on good. You can’t use too much, but it is easy to use too little and your efforts will be wasted. The mixture will soak into the brick and kill the moss.

Give the solution about 20 minutes to work, and go over the sprayed area again with the broom to remove anything that may have come loose. Finally – and this is important – rinse the whole area with clean water to remove all bleach left behind.

Cautions: if you have plants in the area of your bricks, bleach will likely kill or damage them as well. If you don’t want to use bleach to remove the moss from your bricks you can use vinegar as an alternative. Directions remain the same, but bear in mind that vinegar is not as effective as bleach. It is, however, better than nothing and may be capable of doing what you need.

What else do we know about moss?

It does grow on the north side of trees …and the south, west and east.

Some mosses will grow in direct, all-day sunshine, as well as in the darkest shade.

Most mosses are not very particular about what kind of soil they grow in, but compacted poor soils, and even stone, will provide a nesting ground.

Those little moss spores are everywhere and, being carried by the wind, can invade any yard.

So, for now, be careful on the green bricks, and enjoy the beauty of the red ones.