Do you have a moss garden? If Yes then, first of all, congrats. It’s not an easy task, it takes time, effort, and dedication. I believe you are really a passionate moss gardener.
Now a bigger question arises- Is your moss garden beautiful? Is it the same as you wish it to be? Or something needs to be changed?
If your moss garden looks as you want then It’s great. You probably know all these steps. If not then don’t worry we are here for you. Just read everything carefully and try to follow as much as you can.
Read this: Everything to know about raised garden beds
6 Tips to keep your Moss Garden Healthy & Beautiful
- Cleaning
- Watering
- Removal of weeds and grasses
- Maintain Enough Shade
- Filling Patches
- Don’t Walk over the moss
All these tips are simple steps. Just follow these correctly to get a beautiful and healthy moss garden.
Cleaning
The first step starts with thorough and regular cleaning. Cleaning is essential for the beauty of the garden. A beautiful garden needs to be clean.
Especially if it is a moss garden then cleanliness is essential for healthy growth. Every type of moss loves a clean growing medium.
It is a well-known fact that moss gets its nutrients from the air and moisture around it. Therefore the nature of the growing medium does not affect the growth of moss.
Anything that is clean and firm can act as a good medium to grow moss. You can simply take garden soil or any organic material or something like stone or concrete block to grow your own moss garden.
You can use hard infertile soil or rock instead of loose sand and gravel. A hard surface is always best for moss growth. The only consideration here is the cleanliness of the surface. The surface should be clean and free from oil and chemical stains.
Once grown these tiny moss need some care. You should clean the surface of the moss carpet or blocks regularly. You can use a broom to remove any dirt or fallen leaves. This will enhance the beauty of your garden and also helps these mosses to easily gain nutrients.
Learn about: Portulaca (Moss rose) – How to Grow and Care?-with Images
Watering
Water is an essential part of the life cycle of a moss plant. Almost every variety of moss loves the moist environment.
Water act as a medium to propagate spores from male to female reproductive parts. It also provides essential support to fertilize these spores and form gametophytes. These gametophytes develop into mature moss in the same moist environment.
Therefore, it is clear that your garden should have enough water supply to feed the moss. In fact, a flowing water source like a small spring or pond will do the job. Also, this will add some diversity in the fauna of your garden.
Regular watering is essential from day one of your moss garden project. Lack of moisture can turn the moss pale yellow. So to keep them lustrous green and healthy, water regularly.
Do you know?- Commercial Moss gardeners use the solution of buttermilk with water to provide extra nutrition for faster growth.
This solution actually works. The Moss plants like slightly acidic media to grow. So when we add sour buttermilk solution, it gradually decreases the Ph of the growing medium. The Ideal ph for moss growth is 6-6.5 ph, It is slightly acidic.
You should read: Why do ferns require a moist environment?
Removal of weeds and grasses
For a healthy and beautiful moss garden, you should always take care of invasive weeds and grasses. Though a mature moss colony can easily control any invasion themselves. But in Initial days like the first 6-8 months, you should do it manually.
Don’t use weedicides, I never recommend that especially for a moss garden. You should check the ground on a weekly basis for any weed or grass growth. Remove them manually. You can use any gardening tools, mechanical or manual whatever you like.
Removal of weeds and grass will provide room for moss to grow and expand. It will also provide a beautiful uniform carpet look to your moss garden.
Once it gets mature and covers the entire ground. You should not worry about any weed or grass. The thick and dense covering of moss will suppress any weed from growing. This covering will stop any seed germination so no grass can grow further.
Still, for a healthy and beautiful green garden, you should take care of the removal of grass and weeds.
Check out: How do you get rid of the fungus in the garden soil?
Maintain Enough Shade
Some moss can grow in full sun, but They prefer some shade during noontime. So it is better to grow a moss garden in a shady area of your garden or just under big trees.
Most of the time some big plants or trees will do the job. I don’t think you will need any artificial shade for your moss garden. It seems unnecessary expenditure.
Just select a spot that gets natural light with partial shade. Most probably you will find some moss already growing in this spot. Only take care of water and weeds and that’s it. Just wait for few months to see a visible change.
A little bit of shade will save moisture and maintain regular humidity. These are the ideal condition for moss growth. In a controlled environment, you should maintain humidity above 60% and temperature above 50-degree Fahrenheit.
Filling Patches
This is an advanced step. Don’t worry there is nothing serious about it. You just have to fill any blank spot or patches to give a uniform look. Buy Green moss online.
Why this is advance?- It is so Coz you have to spend hours every week to keep an eye over the growth pattern.
If you find any blank spot or patch without any moss. Then add some moss to fill the spot. This is a tricky job as sometimes a single variety of moss is insufficient to fill the entire garden.
In flatbeds, you can use any variety of Acrocarpous moss. Most varieties of acrocarpous moss form dense unbranched carpet-like structures. The carpet moss is the best example of acrocarpous moss. These are small dense short height erected tiny moss. They can cover large areas but their growth is very slow. It can take almost 1-2 years for these moss to cover the entire spot. They are ideal for flat regular surfaces.
The Pleurocarpous moss is best for the rough irregular surfaces. These moss can cover any kind of surface, from stones to bricks and even high mounds. All the varieties of pleurocarpous moss are long branched with less dense formation. They can be grown easily anywhere. You just have to pluck and poke some of these anywhere to grow. They grow really fast. They can cover any empty spot in just 3-6 months.
So You should choose any moss variety according to the following factors.
- Location of Growth
- Nature of growing media
- The time required for the growth
Regular Patching of empty spaces is the final step to keep your moss garden beautiful and green like velvet.
Don’t Walk over the moss
Last of all is walking or playing over the moss garden. This is strictly prohibited. Many gardeners will say that moss will not die on simple walking or so. This is perfectly true but there are some other factors that can cause damage to the health and beauty of the moss garden.
- Moss is very shallow rooted Plant.
- Their Reproduction depends on the flowing water.
- The moss takes nutrients from their surrounding.
First of all, walking or playing over the moss will uproot it from the soil. Next, they can not hold the growing media firmly. So the space between the roots and soil will lead to decaying or drying frequently.
Walking or playing not only damages the root system in moss but also retards the fertilization of spores. When we walk over the moss, most of the spores either get destroyed or carried away resulting in no further fertilization.
You can sit and spend time in your garden but avoid unnecessary walking. Especially avoid running and don’t let your kids and dogs running around the moss garden.
It is a completely personal choice and decision, How we want our garden moss to look and feel. So if you want it green and lustrous then follow these simple steps. I know it is time taking but the final result is really worthwhile doing this.
Finally, you should read this: 13 Tips for Gardening in Rainy Season: Monsoon Gardening
Final Words
I hope now you can grow a beautiful and healthy moss garden. It is pretty easy if you follow my steps. I know I m not an expert but I have tried these many times and it think it works. So there is no harm giving it a try. And Yes, maintaining a moss garden is very easy, even easier than maintaining a lawn. So give it a try and share your experiences and views with us.
I’ll be back with something more interesting. Till then keep reading keep gardening.