Moss gardens or lawns

[Tokis-Phoenix]

Hi there !

About 8 or so months ago I bought a house with my fiancé, and up until now we have just been concentrating on re-decorating the house and other jobs concerning it- but now the weather has warmed up I have decided to concentrate more on the garden now the house is almost completed.

Apart from tidying up the odd flower bed, practically no serious work has been done to the garden- but I have big plans for the garden and are hoping to radically change it by the end of this year to something more Japanese style.
Currently it is just your typical bog standard 50’s to 60’s ex-council house garden, with wooden fences and hedges bordering the sides, an unusual Australian tree to one side, a large birch tree at the bottom and numerous strawberry plants at the end of the patio.
I'm planning of getting rid of all the hedges and hedge-like plants that are currently occupying the garden, leaving just the birch and Australian tree- this will also hopefully open up a lot of space, as the garden is very small, and some of the hedge plants take up as much as 5ft by 5ft of the garden in the corners.

I already have plans to put in 2 large ponds connected to each other in the garden, but my next concern after the birch tree and pond issue (see “Birch tree and pond issuesâ€

[Copper Leaf]

Tokis-Phoenix,

This is my second attempt at answering your post... Hope it works this time.

I have been told to apply buttermilk on a surface then rub the moss against it to encourage moss growth... as strange as that may sound it is supposed to work.

My husband and I lived in Japan for almost four years, we too hope to have a lovely Japanese garden in one very mossy location of our property. Have you picked up a copy of this month's Southern Living "Our best Gardens" issue? It has an article highlighting a beautiful Japanese garden with moss lawn designed by Maryland landscaper Osamu Shimizu ( the article begins on page eighteen)... it is lovely. With all of the exposure to Japanese culture and gardening (to include three years of ikebana flower arranging classes) I still don't think I have grasped the concept of wabi-sabi, But I am all for working with what you have and finding beauty in the imperfect, ever changing and incompleat.