Whenever I hear someone pining for a moss garden because it’s low-maintenance I wonder about the source of that tidbit of misinformation. Coz I’ve seen too many photos of gardeners in Japanese moss gardens down on their hands and knees using tweezers to pry weeds out of the moss without damaging it. And heard that mosses typically need even moisture and are rendered dead by periods of drought. And so on.
So I have a mixed reaction to this article about moss, which touts its success in creating "drama". But here are some really useful highlights from it:
- There are about 1,200 species of moss native to North America, some of which actually prefer sun and alkaline soil.
- In this area mosses generally prefer shade, acidic soil and most importantly, "moisture is the key to success".
- You can kill stuff if you aren’t really careful about applying all that aluminium sulfate needed to acidify your soil.
- And then there’s weeds. "In the case of moss, getting rid of them is a painstaking process. Count on plucking seedlings from the moss on a regular basis to maintain a rich carpet-like appearance."
I told ya! The article recommends Oregon State for more info about this very cool-looking (though hardly sustainable) plant.
{ 14 comments }
I have never seen a moss garden. It looks wild.
This year I fell in love with moss. During the winter, while puttering around my mostly brown yard in need of a beauty-fix, I focused on my little patches of beautiful green moss. And I love this recipe for spreading moss:
“Place a pound of …well-aged leaf mold or manure into a jar. Fill it two-thirds full with water. Shake well. Let it settle and pour off the water and floating debris, retaining the mud that remains in the bottom of the jar. In a blender, mix several pancake-size, moistened pieces of moss with a cup of mud from the jar. It should be about the same consistency as pancake batter. Paint the material onto soil or unglazed bricks, and keep moist. “
Love the moss garden! When I had a tiny, all-the-way shaded backyard it was my saving grace. And yep, there was weeding, but the weeds slip right out and it was sort of meditative, a plucking instead of the great handfuls of unwanted greenery that invade more hospitable situations. Now I’m content with a dish garden of moss, anyone interested should definitely check out George Schenk’s moss book (in the article cited above) as well as his tabletop gardening one. And for a moss garden without the moss, I recommend baby’s tears or cotula…
I love moss but I do believe it can be a challenge to keep pristine as in your picture which is gorgeous. Moss people!
I have a large moss garden and it is a fair amount of work to keep it clean and weed free. It’s under crabapple trees so even the falling flowers really need to be cleaned up. The moss that’s right for your conditions will find you, so you don’t want to do extra watering etc. or you will wind up growing moss that likes more moisture than you typically have. I will say that picking up leaves, pulling weeds etc. is a very soothing activity and one I save for when I’m too hot or too tired for other projects.
Well, nothing beautiful is work free but once again correct placement helps greatly.
I have noticed the best spots out in woodland areas tend to be on a slope of some kind. Most debris is blown away leaving the spot open for clinging moss. A few ferns within the moss are not a problem. Even some small sedges look cool growing through.
Check out the pictures on a walk in the woods,
http://pollinators-welcome.blogspot.com/2009/03/walk-in-woods.html#links
scroll past the first ones of spring beauty wildflowers.
It sounds beautiful but hard work. I do enjoy the natural patches of moss that occur around my trees and in damp spots and have even considered encouraging them but I dont’ think I have the patience for weeding more than a small, small patch.
Wow! Beautiful, but I’m with you on the maintenance concerns. My husband and I practice bonsai and just keeping the little patches of moss on our soil is almost harder than taking care of the tree itself. I can’t imagine having an entire garden to take care of.
I have a small moss garden, maybe 3′x3′ under a paperbark maple. It’s about 4 years old and took quite a bit of patience. But like the comments above, there’s something peaceful about pulling the tiny weeds, sweeping away debris with a paintbrush and repairing torn spots. I had the good fortune of visiting Japan and watching gardeners tend the moss lawns with tweezers. My little patch is all I can handle.
Mosses grow naturally along the shady edges of our lawn here in south-central Connecticut. We love the look, so we’ve let the mosses expand as they choose. We only have to lightly rake leaves off the moss areas a couple times a year and mow over the edges where grass is still trying to grow. Otherwise the moss is care free. It is certainly less work than mowing grass weekly, it survives quite well with natural rainfall, and it acts as a wonderful bridge between lawn and woods. I can see a ‘moss garden’ planted where mosses don’t naturally grow as needing time consuming attention, but letting it expand in its native setting is about the easiest gardening task one could ask for.
Moss is as easy as you want it to be. When you see monks maintaining their grounds you can expect them to be meticulous because it is their spiritual practice. But moss is also very resilient and tends to come back to life. You don’t absolutely have to maintain it painstakingly but it will reward you if you do. It is versatile.
i just started my own little 10′X10′ area by placing moss that was growing around my home and purchasing some other types of moss such as spanish moss and irish moss…it is starting to spread and i live in syracuse, ny and wonder how long before it fills in the entire area…?please email me at above address…thank you…connie
In my back yard I have a small water garden with a weeping cherry tree nearby. Under the tree, I had several patches of moss growing on their own. I started plucking weeds and grass blades from the moss and decided to start a moss garden, which is an area about 10′ x 20′. A friend gave me several large buckets full of different mosses, and I’m thrilled to see it coming along. It’s SO beautiful.
I love my moss, but I can find no information on diseases of moss. my moss has dieing areas in the middle and I do not know why or what is happening. Nor can I find any information anywhere. What could be the problem? If there is an answer I would appreciate hereing from you via email. Thank, Carol
Comments on this entry are closed.