Once, moss was the plague of lawn lovers. Today, it is quickly becoming a crucial part of well-rounded shade garden. As many gardeners have already discovered, there is a whole world of moss varieties to be discovered.
The first thing you need to grow a moss is a shady area. Different varieties of moss will survive in different degrees of shade, but all mosses need some level shade.
Mosses also tend to like damp areas. Again the level of dampness that they require varies from moss type to moss type, but all mosses like to live in damp areas.
Mosses also like acidic soil, for the most part. If your soil is too alkaline or base, a liberal sprayed application of buttermilk will help to make the soil more acidic.
Once you have the proper conditions to grow moss, you need to find some moss to grow. There are three ways to go about this.
- Wait for it to grow. This method takes a time and luck but it is the cheapest. You have a pretty good chance of being able to coax a bit of moss to grow if you have the right conditions, but you have almost the same chance of just ending up with weeds.
- Purchase it. This method can be very expensive, mostly because there are not very many places that sell moss. The one benefit is that if you can find a place that sells moss, you will most likely have a wide selection of named varieties to choose from.
- Harvest it from the wild. This method is the most common, but many environmentalists and naturalists tend to frown on this practice. Unfortunately, due to the lack of retail places to purchase moss, many moss enthusiasts have turned to gather moss from the wild.If you choose this method, your best bet will be to go looking in an environment similar to the once you have in your garden. If your shade garden is very damp, with dappled shade, you should look in a very damp, dappled shaded place for moss. This will ensure that the moss you harvest has the best chance of survival and you will not be harvesting wastefully. Remember, moss is like any other plant. If you try to grow it in conditions it does not like, it will not survive.
Another thing you can do to reduce your impact in harvesting from the wild is to make the moss you collect go farther by making a moss slurry (discussed below) from it and using that to grow new moss.
Once you have your moss, you will need to plant it. Moss is typically planted one of two ways.
For a quick, full look, you can take the moss you have and lay it out in the chosen location like you would sod. Press the moss pieces onto the area, even stepping on them (you won’t hurt it) in order to ensure that there are no air pockets between the moss and the growing surface. Mist lightly with a buttermilk and water mixture until the moss is established.
The other method is to make a moss slurry. The advantage to this is that you can cover a larger area faster with less moss, but it will take a few weeks before you moss garden looks like anything. To make a moss slurry, mix 2 parts moss, 2 parts water and one part buttermilk in a blender (preferably not one you will be using for food in the future). Blend thoroughly. Then spread the mixture over the area you would like to grow moss. Keep misted with water until moss has established itself.
Once you have a moss garden going, many experts recommend a yearly application of buttermilk to keep the soil acidic and to the moss’ liking.