Paths of least resistance

Work with nature not against it

If you are blessed with a sunny spot in your garden, treasure it, and grow your sunflowers with enthusiasm.

If you are gardening in the shade, and you've struggled to grow a lawn, you could write a book about challenges.
Grass is the cheapest plant to install and the most expensive to maintain.   The hours of maintenance per week to achieve and keep a lawn looking acceptable consumes time which most of us can ill afford. Here in the Takoma/Silver Spring area, we have mid-Atlantic clay.  To encourage grass to grow in this inhospitable soil, in full sun, means adding a lot of good new soil plus lime (to counteract the acidity of clay).

Trying to grow grass in partial shade, even more soil amendment is needed = wheel barrows of good soil plus labor to spread. If you lime your soil amendment enough to please the grass, then the acid-loving Azaleas, Rhododendrons, and perennials (both native and non-native) protest, loudly and visibly.

And the costs of limbing up the trees that are shading your garden can add up quickly, assuming that these trees are even candidates for limbing-up.

Simple deductive reasoning can lead one to throw in the towel and begin thinking about alternatives to a lawn that is struggling in vain.  
There are several avenues to consider: 
• take out all or most of the lawn, and add shrubs and perennials to create partial-shade borders that give you four-season vistas in several directions. 
• create a woodland garden feel by adding a few small under-story trees: dogwood, redbud, Viburnum, set in beds of low ground-cover.
• you may even want to consider taking the path of least resistance and learn about moss.  A primeval survivor, moss will grow in deep shade, on sand or rock, or clay.

Mosses appear in a lawn when conditions for moss growth are better than conditions for grass growth. Too much shade, or too much water; or too low a pH; or soil compaction (or any combination of the above) can discourage turf-grass, but encourage mosses to grow.   Does this sound like your garden?

So you could ask yourself:  is it is better to pull out the remaining grass and let nature build you a first-rate moss garden? Maybe better to work with nature, not against it.

Nonie Burnet lives at Eden Woods, a 3/4 acre garden in her 4 acres of woods near Richmond, Virginia. At first, she had a conventional attitude towards moss: 'Fine in the woods but not in my garden. It' s especially unwelcome in my grass lawn. '    

But as she laboriously scraped moss intruders from her struggling lawn, she thought about the beauty of moss. She certainly never thought about becoming famous.

The grass itself had been speaking to her. It simply refused to grow  in  her acidic and highly shaded soils. She couldn't afford the massive topsoil transplant that was clearly needed, nor the maintenance involved in reseeding, fertilizing, aerating and mowing her swaths of ever-thinning lawn.

So, over 15 years, Burnet ushered out the grass and ushered in the carpets and curving runners of luscious moss. 'Nature had plans for this garden.   I finally got the message.'

Her garden now hosts 8 different mosses, all having arrived on their own.  But sometimes we may need some help from the experts. One such is David Benner, a moss grower in Pennsylvania (www.mossacres.com).

Other moss gardeners say that routine care of moss is easy. Watering is unnecessary AFTER it is established; and even during severe drought, moss never turns brown, just chartreuse. Ten minutes after a rain it is brilliant green again. Moss seems to get no diseases, and as the years progress, it chokes out weeds. High heels poke holes and damage moss, but you can walk on it flat-footed all day long.
Some tips to help you get started: Moss needs the OPPOSITE of what grass needs. If the books say to water grass in the morning, water your moss at night. If they say to water deep, water the moss shallow.Where grass requires a pH of 6.5, and a lot of lime, moss prefers the natural acid pH of 5.5.

To grow moss on a surface, such as a terra cotta pot, make a slurry of bits of live moss (preferably from your own property or collected gently and in small quantities from a nearby source) and some sort of agent that will help the mixture adhere. Some gardeners use yogurt or buttermilk because many mosses like the acidity; others use a small amount of modeling clay. Some of us mix the ingredients in the blender.

Keep the object moist (misting is highly recommended) and keep it in a shady area for several weeks.
Mrs. Burnet, a widow and self-described 'Senior Gardener', does the work all herself, with no hired help.  'Sometimes, it's  hard work, but it keeps me limber.'

The moss (and fern) garden is forgiving to foot traffic. But it must be kept clear of debris. Moss covered too long with anything will suffocate and disappear.    Groom the moss bed of oak tassels, poplar casings, gumballs, hickory nuts and acorns after wind and rain storms.  

In the Fall, dropped leaves have to be 'raked' fairly quickly. Mrs. Burnet uses a blower or a gentle bamboo rake, (an outdoor lawn vacuum would work well), and in some areas black mesh netting, which is periodically dragged into the woods and dumped.  

During drought, the moss dries out like a sponge and survives remarkably well.   It responds instantly to rain or water from a sprinkler by puffing up and  changing from chartreuse to a deep, rich tone of green. Mrs. Burnet has no watering or misting system other than a sprinkler at the end of a hose, which she tries to use sparingly.

'Gardening is not for sissies,' she says. Her secret is to focus all her energy on one section at a time and make it pristine and beautiful. 'Don't worry about the whole yard,  It won't go away.'

And what about 'famous'? Mrs. Burnet stays busy booking garden tours and her garden has become a site for weddings.

To book a tour of Nonie Burnet's garden, contact her at edenwoods@aol.com

Other design ideas: The clean hard look of stone against the softness of moss.

Companionplants: Ferns, Hostas, particularly the tiny ones.  The American Hosta Growers Association 'Hosta of the Year' for 2008 is 'Blue Mouse Ears'.    Other mini Hostas: ''Cat's Eye', 'Cracker Crumbs', 'Dragon Tails', 'Imp', Limey Lisa', 'Medusa'.

Who can resist?

The delicate leaves of a Japanese maple nearby.

One gardener with a substantial 'lawn' of moss, says:  'It's so easy and natural, it's just -- well, underwhelming.

If you are into numbers:  one gram of moss from the forest floor, a piece about the size of a muffin, would harbor 150,000 protozoa; 132,000 tardigrades (tiny invertebrates); 3,000 springtails; 800 rotifers; 50 nematodes, 400 mites, and 200 larvae,'  according to Robin W. Kimmerer in 'Gathering Moss: A Natural and Cultural History of Mosses.'

Two other books we like:
'Moss Gardening', by George Schenk.

'The American Woodland Garden', by Rick Darke.

Pat Howell is a Takoma Park gardener and landscape designer/contractor. She is available for hand-holding and answering questions through Deephaven Landscapers.

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