Enhance Your Landscaping by Growing Moss

By B.E. Conrad

There are many ways to enhance and dress up a garden, but increasingly the addition of rocks, boulders, and garden statuary has become quite popular. These types of garden elements have a number of important advantages over other elements of landscapes design, including, of courses, the fact that they never need to be watered or fertilized.

In addition, the natural aging process of these landscape design elements can make them look even more attractive and interesting. While a fresh from the store or art gallery garden statue can provide an air of elegance, a naturally aged piece of garden statuary, complete with moss covering, can provide a classical look and feel that simply cannot be matched.

The problem, of course, is that it takes time for moss to grow, and it can be hard to wait for that classical effect to be achieved. Fortunately, there is a way to jump start the process of covering your garden statues and lawn boulders in lawn, using only a little imagination and some basic supplies.

Before using this method, however, you should be aware that it does not work very well when it comes to artificial landscaping stones or resin statues. It does tend to work quite well on natural rocks and other types of garden statuary.

1. The first step is to take a lump of porcelain clay the size of your fist, along with three cups of water. Stir this mixture together until it makes a thin paste. The porcelain clay you need to make the mixture should be readily available at any hobby shop.
2. After the clay mixture has been prepared, a cup of undiluted fish emulsion and a cup of shredded fresh moss should be added. The fish emulsion is a type of fertilizer, and it will encourage the moss to establish itself and grow. Fish emulsion fertilizers are available at a variety of nurseries, garden centers and home improvement warehouse stores.
3. After all the ingredients have been mixed together, the mixture can simply be painted onto the rocks and statues using a standard paint brush.

When taking this approach to growing moss quickly, keep in mind that moss will naturally grow in patches, and it tends to grow best on the northern side of objects. Moss also readily adapts to the natural cracks and crevices in objects, making it a great choice for boulders, rocks and stones.

When painting this moss producing mixture on rocks and statues in parts of the garden that are naturally shady and moist, you may see a good growth of moss in only a few weeks. For sunnier and drier areas you may have to be a bit more patient.

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