Hello and welcome back to Turf Mechanic. In our last article, we discussed about why you might be having moss in your lawn (click here to check it out).
However, I believe a lot of you might actually not have it already, but might be looking forward to having it.
While not all of us love moss, all of us sure must admit that it does look pretty if grown properly. In fact, gardening experts think of moss as an essential thing to actually decorate a garden properly! However, it might actually be a little harder if your garden is stony. So, How to Grow Moss on Stone? Let’s figure out!
In today’s article here at Turf Mechanic, we are going to take a look at how you might grow moss on stone in your lawn. Don’t worry, because it isn’t half as hard as it sounds! Just stick along with us and I’m sure you’ll find that it’s fairly simple to actually do it. So, are you ready to learn about How to Grow Moss on Stone in your lawn? Let’s get started then!
Things to know before you can grow moss
How to Grow Moss on Stone? Well, before you actually get to growing moss, you must know what they like and they don’t like. Naturally, if you create perfectly adverse conditions, it might die even if you bring it in a healthy condition from elsewhere. So, there are quite a few things that you might want to keep in mind. The chief factors that determine whether moss would love your lawn or not are as follows:
- Shade: One of the most important things when it comes to moss is shade. You perfectly NEED a shady lawn or at least a shady spot in order to grow moss. Moss can’t thrive in sunlight, so if the place is exposed to regular sunlight for long hours, you can’t really grow moss there. So, keep in mind, you need the right amount of shade for your moss.
- Dampness: Another thing that’s essential for the growth of moss is dampness. A lot of shady spots are available out there that are really dry, and you don’t really find moss there. This is because moss can’t survive in spots that are too dry- so don’t forget that the spot must be damp as well as shady.
Does my Soil Have to be Acidic?
View 1: Moss Prefers Acidic Soil.
A lot of people seem to believe that Mosses require an acidic soil. On the pH scale, a value lower than 7 denotes acidity while a value more than 7 denotes alkaline character. So, a lot of people seem to believe that you must have a value higher than 7 in order for mosses to grow, and that’s precisely why there are several treatments available to make your acidic soil alkaline. Quoting MossAndStone Gardens:
With regards to soil pH, moss will grow in most pH conditions. Adjusting the pH is usually not needed. If you suspect your soils are alkaline (greater than 7 on the logarithmic scale,) you should get the soil tested . And if it is above 7.0, you may consider adding aluminum sulfate or elemental sulphur to bring it down somewhat. Alkaline conditions like this may have been created by years of lime applications in an attempt to sustain grasses in the shade. In our experience, mosses will grow on soils of a wide range of pH. The common practice has been to adjust soil pH to 5.0 or 5.5 for the benefit of the moss, but since mosses don’t have roots that feed from the soil, pH is not a major criterial.
View 2: Alkaline soil would do just as well!
Again there are a lot of people who also believe that a soil does not have to be necessarily acidic. They claim that the alkaline character is equally acceptable to moss, and claim to have actually seen it for themselves. Quoting GardenMyths:
Moss does prefer to grow in acidic soil, but it will grow just fine in alkaline soil. Part of my lawn is shady, wet and has a pH of 7.4. Moss grows much better than grass in that area. The picture above is a 4 foot high limestone bolder that is covered in moss – it is certainly not acidic.
The common advice of liming the soil will make it less acidic is done properly, but it will not get rid of moss. Liming can actually make the situation worse. Unless you know for sure that your soil is too acidic for growing grass, do not add lime.
So, How to Grow Moss on Stone?
Growing moss on stone, as I remarked earlier, might seem like a hard job. However, once you actually know how to do it, it’s fairly simple! So, here’s how you might actually want to approach this problem- it is really hoped that this would help you do the job a lot quicker and with a lot more simplicity.
Way 1: Placing it there.
One of the simplest ways that a lot of people tend to opt for is actually placing moss on your rocks from another part of your garden where it’s already present. This is one of those ideas that require almost zero effort on your part except bringing it from the place it’s already present, and has a pretty high chance of success. The main things you might want to keep in mind when you for for this method are as follows:
- First of all, you must actually make the stone wet. You need to select a position where the air circulation isn’t too good and you must provide excess water to create dampness on your stone. This would make a favorable situation for the moss to actually adapt to this new place.
- Next, you might want to get some moss from somewhere it’s already present in. For example, you can get it from another part of your lawn where you saw it growing. If your lawn doesn’t have it, you can get it from any of your friends’ lawn. It really doesn’t matter where you get it from, as long as you can get healthy moss.
- Now, you might want to properly put the moss on your stone the way you want to. Naturally, if you want to keep some places open so that the stone is visible, this is the time to position your moss accordingly.
And that’s it. If you follow these few steps properly, the process is done. You’d have moss just where you want, and just how you want! Simple isn’t it? And that’s precisely why most of the homeowners actually choose to go for this method.
Way 2: Growing it there.
Now, there are a lot of experts out there who really don’t love re-positioning their moss. So, they have come up with another method which they believe is a lot better- actually growing it where you want. Admittedly, this method is slightly more complex, and a little longer, but I believe it’s worth it, because you’d actually be able to take more pride in the moss you grew yourself!
So, the main steps you might want to follow if you want to go for this method are as follows:
- First of all, you must get your hands on some buttermilk, moss, and water. These are the main things that you are going to need if you plan to actually go on with this method.
- Next, you need to mix all of these together using your blender until a milkshake consistency level is reached. This might take a little while, and you must keep blending them until this stage is reached. It is really important that you really reached this stage, because that would ensure a proper growth later on.
- Next, you need to take this new solution you have and apply it on your rock after watering your rock. You need to keep in mind that this solution-method is more preferable because it actually lets it GROW where you want it to be.
And that’s it. While this method is undoubtedly a little lengthier, the experts actually prefer going for this method. One of the main reasons behind this is that you are actually growing the moss at the right place, which ensures it’s going to be much more healthy and natural looking.
Conclusion
So, we took a look at the main things you might want to take into consideration when you’re trying to grow moss in your lawn. Don’t worry, I know things can look hard right now, but I assure you that it’s not hard at all! It’s actually fairly simple, and you’ll realize than as soon as you get started with the things.
However, there’s one thing you must always keep in mind- you must do your research before you jump into it. There are a whole lot of ways out there and you can’t try all of them, but most of them have already been tried by others. So, one of the best things you can do is to learn from their experience and actually go for it.
So, we also considered the different methods that you can follow in order to grow moss on your stones. We hope that you’d be able to put it to use and actually make your lawn even more beautiful than it already is! Keep in mind, once again, that while both the methods are great ideas, the second one is a bit more preferable. And finally, know that getting a beautiful lawn is something all lawn-owners like us want. However, we must not forget that discipline and patience are the key values which we need to stand for in order to finally accomplish this goal of ours.
Turf Mechanic is here for you!
Finally, we have reached the end of today’s article. We really hope that you could learn at least something new from this article. Hopefully, you would be able to implement these ideas in real and actually make your lawn even more beautiful!
We thank you from the core of our heart to take your time to read this article till the very end. We understand, however, that you might still have a few questions for us. Please know that Turf Mechanic is always here and is always prepared to serve you. So, if you have anything which you think we might be able to assist you with, please do not hesitate in reaching out to us! We look forward to hearing from you!
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