Help me moss like a boss

July 1, 2017 5:41 PM

Small side yard w fescue and moss. Zone 7b, half sun. Can I make it all moss? How?
posted by LonnieK to Home & Garden (2 answers total)

You can have moss where there's moss now by carefully picking all the fescue out of it and not walking on it, and you can spread it in the shady bits by removing the fescue sod, roughing up small sections of the bare earth and transplanting small patches of the moss there (spray gently every couple of days, keep it weeded). This guy made himself a moss garden, there's good information there. But the part in the sun is a challenge. Moss doesn't like sun. Consider Irish moss, maybe. It spreads slowly, but it has the velvety look you want. I can't find an image that isn't on a commercial site, but if you Google sagina subulata you can see what it looks like. Get yourself some flat slate stones and arrange them artfully and get the moss to grow around them. Then you can still walk out there if you need to.
posted by nohattip at 7:31 PM on July 1, 2017 [5 favorites]

I was told by a professional landscape designer to use buttermilk! The SF Chronicle talks about it here. In my case, it was for a front yard, with a big tree that soaked up and shaded all the light, an awkward grass area, where grass didn't grow, and a bunch of pretty shrubs that I wanted to let be. I considered the moss, but in the end, didn't want something that's effectively mold growing near the house, so I went with groundcover. If you explore groundcover, you'll find there are all kinds, for light, shade, and dark areas. Some is walkable. Some flowers. It's often easy to grow, and it generally requires no maintenance. Anyway, good growing, whatever you decide!
posted by Violet Blue at 4:38 PM on July 2, 2017 [1 favorite]