Q: I recently visited the Japanese Garden in Portland and was amazed at the amount of moss used in this peaceful garden. Combined with an inexpensive water timer, regular watering would be easy to accomplish.

Look for “micro-sprayers” in the drip irrigation components at your local nursery. Moss doesn’t die when it dries out, it just goes dormant, but it is unattractive. The key to moss gardening in Atlanta, of course, is watering it in the summer.

The resulting puree of stem parts and spores can then be poured in the new moss garden. If you want to experiment, there are several descriptions in recent magazine articles of blending moss with buttermilk or beer or sugar water. You can propagate moss simply by digging clumps and “planting” them in the area where you want more. Is this true?Ī: Several shade gardeners in Atlanta have done the same thing, with interesting results. Q: I have heard that it is possible to propagate moss by blending it with buttermilk in a blender and pouring it on an area. If the moss bug has bitten, you might enjoy reading “The Magical World of Moss Gardening” by Annie Martin. There are hundreds, if not thousands, of different mosses in the world. Since moss does not grow rapidly, it usually does not require fertilizer beyond what Mother Nature provides naturally. All you need to do for moss maintenance season is blowing fallen leaves off the patch and pulling out small weeds as they appear. The common mosses in Atlanta crave dense, clay soil, plenty of moisture and shady conditions. As with any plant, the secret is to give it what it wants.

They have it in patches across their lawns where they want grass to grow. There are hundreds of lawn lovers who can demonstrate how easy it is to grow moss. They’re purposely growing moss rather than trying to eliminate it from their landscape. More than a few gardeners have decided to switch rather than fight.

Download types of moss