Moss Garden in May ... 2014

Recovering lost posts

For the past few years I have been working on the moss garden.  This is the area along the stone walk between the Japanese garden area and the little pond.  From the pond the moss follows the dry stream under the deck, and to the side of the house where it exits under some ferns.  The moss is slowly extending under the deck.  The little patch of moss above is my best moss of the moment. It is a very tight and smooth moss.  In the photo, it needs to be cleaned up.  There are many kinds of moss growing in our area.  I have at least 5 kinds of them.  

 This is a view of the newest stepping stones going from the primulas to under the deck, past the rhodos and the hellebores.  It crosses the drystream at the little euonymus shrub and continues as old board stepping stones at the moment.  I put the boards down because it the clay soil under the deck was very muddy this Spring.  I might keep them as is or try and get some big cedar rounds to be more decorative. 

 This is a closer look at the moss in this new stepping stones area.  It is filling in quite nicely. 

 This is the corner of the dry stream that goes towards the house.  You can see the ferns that grow here.  I only let the welsh poppies grow in the area on the top side of the dry stream.  I have to keep the ferns picked out of the moss.  This seems to be a natural combination of plants.  There is the little euonymus shrub that I keep clipped back.  I am amazed that there is enough sun for it to grow.  Towards the house there are more ferns and a place to rest in the shade.  I am working on establishing more moss and ferns just beyond this area.

 This is the view of the dry stream from just outside of the deck area.  You see the deck post, and just in front of it there is a patch of moss that is getting better every year.  In this patch of moss there is an unknown plant.

 There are now 3 of these unknown plants.  I am not sure what they are.  As I may have put a little orchid in here at one time, I am leaving these plants grow until I can find out if they are weeds or the orchid.

This is not a moss.  :-).  It is nice and fuzzy, though.  It is the larvae of the silver spotted tiger moth.  I nearly squashed it for a tent caterpillar.   These caterpillars do make tents too.  But they are different moths, and these caterpillars feed primarily on evergreen trees.  The caterpillar was turned a lovely golden color by the back light from the sun.

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Posted By Blogger to My Garden at 5/29/2014 08:28:00 PM