Moss: what to do...

[Arzosah]

Hi folks. I'm a new member here, but in this garden I have now, I have quite a bit of moss - and its definitely around poor drainage, as people have been saying, in my case anyway. It grows in flowerpots, in the cracks between the paving, and, um, on the roof too. I absolutely love the look of it - and when its combined with lichen, as it usually is round here where the air quality is generally good - it looks so other-worldly, its wonderful.

It is generally benign, I think. It doesn't seem to out-compete anything. And even if it was in my grass, I wouldn't mind - I like biodiversity in the grass. I don't want anything strangling my fruit bushes, but I don't mind a bit of strangled grass, so to speak

I do get clumps falling off the roof - there's moss on the roof too, and I think birds throw it off when they're tossing it over looking for insects, and eventually I sweep the clumps up and put them in the compost bin. Seems to work really well.

 

[ChanellG]

That's kind of a funny sight to imagine, birds tossing moss from your roof. It makes me wonder why they would do it. Does it offend them? LOL I'm not sure about putting it in the compost bin, but maybe you could collect the clumps and offer them to people who build terrariums.

 

[Arzosah]

That's kind of a funny sight to imagine, birds tossing moss from your roof. It makes me wonder why they would do it. Does it offend them? LOL

What very discerning birds they'd be No, in all honesty, I think its like when you see birds wandering about a grassy field - they're rooting about for insects. And it *does* look funny, you're right!

I'm not sure about putting it in the compost bin, but maybe you could collect the clumps and offer them to people who build terrariums.

Actually, I'd never even heard of the idea about moss in terrariums, or modern terrariums at all, for that matter, so this is interesting. Its not enough for a company to make use of - there's maybe 4 clumps a week come down? And about 80% of the roofs around here have moss like mine has moss, so I don't think any locals who *do* happen to make terrariums would be interested in mine either
Do you think there's a problem with putting it in compost? I tried to hunt around just now about it - I might stop that, actually, and just let it dry out and dry (it shreds into little bitty stuff if I just leave it alone for a week) ... sounds like my safest bet...

 

[ChanellG]

Do you think there's a problem with putting it in compost? I tried to hunt around just now about it - I might stop that, actually, and just let it dry out and dry (it shreds into little bitty stuff if I just leave it alone for a week) ... sounds like my safest bet...

Well, moss thrives in moist places; not sure what the heat of the compost would do to it, if anything. I suppose it would depend on whether you compost in a pile or in a bin. Perhaps drying it out first is the best thing.

 

[Tmann]

Arzosah you have too much moss and I have very little. I do get it in the cracks of my pavers. I even tried making my own with buttermilk and a piece of mulch, blend them together and then paint it on a surface. It did not turn out very well, the dog liked it though. I had an old concrete bird bath that had a crack in it so it would no longer hold water, it was a very slow leak though. I took some clay dirt and filled it up, mounding it a bit and then went to the woods and gathered some moss. I put the moss on top of the clay and made a mossy bird bath. It looked pretty good for a while but then the birds came and would dig in it looking for food. I also had to keep watering it daily which was a bit of chore. I need to redo it this spring and run one of my drip irrigation lines to it.

 

[Arzosah]

That does sound like a lot of work Tmann - I don't think I want to go for daily maintenance, to be honest - I'm very into getting a big return out of minimal input (mostly because of arthritis in my shoulder and my fingers, its not *just* that I'm lazy).

A birdbath is a very good idea though .... I've seen the local birds perching on an upended support of a water butt, that was on the grass so long it filled up with water, and they really seem to like the narrowness of the plastic that they perch on. Must think about that when I actually get round to buying one and using the water butt support for what it was meant for!