Moss growing on my brick patio.<\/p><\/div>\n

\u00a0\u00a0 There are many moss-like plants.\u00a0\u00a0 Sea Moss is actually algae; Reindeer Mosses are lichens; Clubmosses (Lycopodiums<\/i> and Selaginellas)<\/i> are vascular plants more closely allied with Horsetails; Spanish Moss is a bromeliad (<\/i>related to Pineapples); Irish and Scotch Moss are in the carnation family. <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 True mosses, in the class Musci;<\/i> include \u201ctrue\u201d mosses, peat mosses, and granite mosses.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 They are primitive \u201cnon-vascular plants,\u201d meaning that they have no tissues for conducting water or nutrients such as the xylem or phloem in \u201chigher\u201d plants.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Plants that have no vascular tissue cannot grow large.\u00a0 They need to absorb moisture and nutrients from their surroundings.\u00a0 Because of this, like lichens, mosses are very susceptible to air pollution.\u00a0 They need to live in moist places during part of their life cycle.\u00a0 Mosses may be found on the ground, on rocks and cliff faces, near waterfalls, on rotting logs, and in bogs.\u00a0 Mosses or other plants that grow on trees are called epiphytes.\u00a0 There are about 700 species of \u201ctrue mosses\u201d and about 40 species of Sphagnum peat moss in our region.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Do you consider moss a pest?\u00a0 It may be–when it is growing on your roof–Just make sure that you use an environmentally-friendly, \u201cleast toxic,\u201d product when controlling moss on structures.\u00a0 <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Many people in their quest for a perfect lawn will use chemicals to kill moss.\u00a0 Proper management is a better strategy–Rake the lawn to remove thatch and moss, aerate it to make sure it drains freely and overseed to fill in bare spots.\u00a0 Irrigate adequately during dry periods to keep the grass healthy but do not let water puddle, follow a recommended fertilizer program, apply lime to keep the pH between 6.0-6.5, and mow grass at the proper height for the species.\u00a0\u00a0 In shady areas, turfgrass grows poorly; other groundcovers may be more suitable\u2014mosses, at least, are green!\u00a0 <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 A Moss Garden can be an attractive feature in a woodland garden.\u00a0 I saw a You-tube video that made it sound easy\u2014all you had to do was acidify the soil!\u00a0 Mosses grow best at a pH of ~5.5.\u00a0 To try to encourage more moss, I tried a little experiment in my yard.\u00a0 After testing the pH of my soil, I endeavored to lower the pH a little more.\u00a0 The only products readily available for acidifying soil are aluminum sulfate (usually sold for making hydrangeas bluer), and elemental sulfur (often sold for treating fungal diseases).\u00a0 It was difficult to quantify the results.\u00a0 The amount of mosses varies dramatically through the seasons and unfortunately, the grass still survived.\u00a0 The plots treated with the aluminum sulfate, however, appeared to have a little more moss.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 For the best success, you really should start with bare ground in a shady location, removing all the grass, weeds, leaves and debris<\/span><\/span>.\u00a0\u00a0 Next, scratch up the soil to loosen it slightly and moisten the soil.\u00a0 There are two methods for establishing moss in a new area.\u00a0 You can transplant entire clumps of moss to the new spot or make a \u201cmoss milkshake\u201d to spread over a larger area by mixing clumps of moss with buttermilk or beer in a blender (using a few types of moss insures a better success rate).\u00a0 Just make sure to mist or water regularly and remove any leaves or debris that fall on the moss.\u00a0 These methods also work well for establishing moss on rocks, in between pavers, in bonsai, fairy gardens, or other special container gardens.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 A Moss Garden is a great project for an environmentalist on St. Patrick\u2019s Day!\u00a0 After all, is anything greener than moss?<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

(This article was first published in the Peninsula Gateway\u00a0<\/em>on March 16, 2011)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0 There are many moss-like plants.\u00a0\u00a0 Sea Moss is actually algae; Reindeer Mosses are lichens; Clubmosses (Lycopodiums and Selaginellas) are vascular plants more closely allied with Horsetails; Spanish Moss is a bromeliad (related to Pineapples); Irish and Scotch Moss are in the carnation family. \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 True mosses, in the class Musci; include \u201ctrue\u201d mosses,<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/habitathorticulturepnw.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/474"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/habitathorticulturepnw.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/habitathorticulturepnw.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/habitathorticulturepnw.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/habitathorticulturepnw.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=474"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/habitathorticulturepnw.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/474\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":478,"href":"http:\/\/habitathorticulturepnw.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/474\/revisions\/478"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/habitathorticulturepnw.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=474"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/habitathorticulturepnw.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=474"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/habitathorticulturepnw.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=474"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}