{"id":2672,"date":"2019-05-15T00:03:20","date_gmt":"2019-05-15T07:03:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/depts.washington.edu\/hortlib\/pal\/pal-question-461\/"},"modified":"2024-01-17T12:43:48","modified_gmt":"2024-01-17T20:43:48","slug":"replacing-grass-with-moss-in-the-garden","status":"publish","type":"pal","link":"https:\/\/depts.washington.edu\/hortlib\/pal\/replacing-grass-with-moss-in-the-garden\/","title":{"rendered":"replacing grass with moss in the garden"},"content":{"rendered":"

Could you tell me how to replace grass with moss in the shady areas of our lawn?<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

There are a number of options for replacing the grass in the shady part
\nof your garden. Should you decide to cultivate moss, Oregon State University’s page (now archived) on Encouraging Mosses <\/a>should be of interest.<\/p>\n

There are two books I would recommend, Moss Gardening<\/em> by George Schenk
\n(Timber Press, 1997), particularly the chapter on “Moss Carpets,” and How
\nto Get Your Lawn Off Grass<\/em> by Carole Rubin (Harbour Publishing, 2002).
\nRubin gives directions for preparing your site, which involve digging out
\nexisting plants or smothering the lawn with mulches of
\nleaves (12 inches), bark (3 inches), or newspaper (10 sheets thick).
\nSchenk offers several different methods for creating a moss garden.
\nBriefly paraphrasing, these are:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Work with nature, allowing self-sown spores of moss to take hold.
    \n(Prepare the site by weeding, raking, and perhaps rolling the surface
    \nsmooth).<\/li>\n
  2. Encourage the moss in an existing lawn by weeding out grass. You can
    \nplant what the author calls “weed mosses” which will spread, such as
    \nAtrichum, Brachythecium, Calliergonella, Mnium, Plagiothecium,
    \nPolytrichum, and others.<\/li>\n
  3. Instant carpet: you can moss about 75 square feet if you have access
    \nto woods from which large amounts of moss can be removed legally.<\/li>\n
  4. Plant moss sods at spaced intervals (about one foot apart) and wait
    \nfor them to grow into a solid carpet.Choose plants that match your soil
    \nand site conditions.<\/li>\n
  5. Grow a moss carpet from crumbled fragments. This is rarely done, and
    \nonly a few kinds of moss will grow this way, including Leucobryum,
    \nRacomitrium, and Dicranoweisia.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    In her book Big Ideas for Northwest Small Gardens<\/em>, Marty Wingate
    \nrecommends Mazus reptans. It is semi-evergreen to evergreen with tiny
    \nblue flowers from late spring through summer. It takes full sun to part
    \nshade and is delicate looking, but takes foot traffic. It requires some
    \nfertilizer to stay perky. Another source of ideas is the website     www.stepables.com.<\/a> Click on “plant info,” then
    \n“plant search.”<\/p>\n

    Another ground cover that can take foot traffic is Leptinella gruveri<\/em>
    \n“Miniature Brass Buttons.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Could you tell me how to replace grass with moss in the shady areas of our lawn?   There are a number of options for replacing the grass in the shady part of your garden. Should you decide to cultivate moss, Oregon State University’s page (now archived) on Encouraging Mosses should be of interest. There are two books I would recommend, Moss Gardening by George Schenk (Timber Press, 1997), particularly the chapter on “Moss Carpets,” and How to Get Your…<\/p>\n

    Continue reading replacing grass with moss in the garden<\/span><\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"menu_order":0,"template":"","keyword":[585,369],"class_list":["post-2672","pal","type-pal","status-publish","hentry","keyword-lawn-alternatives","keyword-mosses"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/depts.washington.edu\/hortlib\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pal\/2672"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/depts.washington.edu\/hortlib\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pal"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/depts.washington.edu\/hortlib\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/pal"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/depts.washington.edu\/hortlib\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/depts.washington.edu\/hortlib\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2672"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"keyword","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/depts.washington.edu\/hortlib\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/keyword?post=2672"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}