Gardeners urged to pour washing up liquid on lawns

Daily Mirror

14-07-2025

Moss can be an irksome problem at it slowly creeps between the blades of grass and turns your lawn into a patchy, uneven surface - but now garden experts have shared a way to get rid of it
A lush green lawn is undoubtedly one of the crowning glories of a British garden, yet when moss invades, it can swiftly spoil that thick, vibrant turf. While some garden enthusiasts have no qualms with moss, to others it's a pest as it spreads among the grass and transforms their lawns into uneven, patchy eyesores.
Gardening gurus have now revealed an ingenious tip for banishing moss - and it's as simple as using your everyday washing-up liquid. The debate over moss is ongoing; its environmental perks include capturing carbon dioxide, offering homes to bugs, and shading the soil.
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However, there remains a camp of green-fingered Brits who loathe the sight of this soft green sprawl across their perfectly manicured lawns.
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Pop into any garden centre and you'll find shelves heaving with pricy concoctions claiming to 'eliminate moss', but these often come with the hefty side effect of harming beneficial garden dwellers such as insects, earthworms, and bees with their harsh chemical formulae.
Instead, gardening experts have proposed a less harmful moss assassination method – just grab your household bottle of Fairy Liquid (though they note other brands will do), reports the Express.
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Joe's Lawn Care, a prominent gardening resource, champions dish soap as "an epic moss killer". They endorse a simple homemade solution: "You can eradicate your moss problem with a two-ingredient cocktail of water and dish soap."
The recipe is incredibly simple: they recommend mixing 60ml of dish soap with four-and-a-half litres of water. Then you simply pour the mixture into a spray bottle.
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The reason why dish soap is considered an effective moss killer is because it contains ingredients which make moss less able to retain water. It then becomes dehydrated, ultimately dying off.
In order to use your new concoction, simply take your mixture outside and spray on any patches of moss you come across. Although, it's advised that you should hold your bottle just a couple of inches away.
If you're unsure over it's efficacy, it should be pretty easy to tell whether or not the mixture has worked. Over the next day or so, the moss turn from a lush green colour to an orangey-brown before it completely dries up.
Of course, after it dries up there is still some work to be done, as it's unlikely you will want to leave the brown mess behind. Simply use a rake to remove the dried-up moss once you're done.
Joe's Lawn Care also warn that you should check the weather first before starting your spray session. You should aim to use your mixture only if it has been rain-free for 24 hours or more, otherwise, you risk your solution (and hard work) being washed away.