Letting Go of the Lawn

So far, this winter has been decidedly green. The lawns are in a verdant holding pattern, even in 10 degree weather. The leaf-blowing is over, the mowers are shoved to the back of the garage and the winterizing fertilizer is doing its thing. 

I've never really had it in me to cultivate grass. I have a Cape Cod lawn, full of bare patches awaiting summer's wildflowers and crab grass.

I can say without reservation that I always welcome the enemy of turf - moss. 

Lawn-oriented people cringe at the word. There are products to eradicate it. I say peel it out of your grass and send it to me.

Moss has long been a key element in Japanese gardens, but is rarely used anywhere else, which is a shame, because it's one of the toughest and most beautiful plants on earth. A slope of moss lit yellow-green by the winter sun is more vivid than the lawn next door.

Retired horticulture professor David E. Benner would certainly agree with me. In the 1960s, David got rid of his lawn and replaced the grass with moss. According to a 2008 New York Times article, Benner hasn't had to use a mower or water "since the Kennedy administration."

The work of Benner and his son Al, owner of Moss Acres, a mail order moss nursery, has elevated the reputation of moss and brought it into landscape design. Although there are countless varieities of moss, Moss Acres sells the four easiest-to-grow types: fern, rock cap, cushion and haircap moss. 

Moss requires a shady location, acidic soil and moisture. Since moss has no roots, the soil doesn't need to be good. Some mosses can tolerate part sun, but one type - rock cap - needs full shade or it will sunburn. 

Should I undertake my own moss project, I have several avenues to choose from:

     1. Buying sheets or plugs of live moss and laying them in the desired areas.

     2. Buying a carton of Moss Milkshake - a mix of moss spores and other ingredients - adding water and spreading the mixture on the soil.

     3. Creating my own slurry of moss spores, buttermilk and water in a blender.

     4. Doing nothing more than taking out the weeds and grass in the area, and waiting for nature and moss spores to blow in on their own, as Benner did.

I'll need to keep the moss misted for the first few weeks.

Whatever method I choose will have to wait until spring. For now, I can rake the leaves off the moss I do have. Nothing, according to the Benners, rots moss faster than leaves left on over the winter. 

Granted, a moss lawn isn't for everyone. For starters, some yards have too much sun. Not to mention that an attractive turf lawn is a hard habit to change. But with the problems of nitrogen-loading in Cape Cod waters, moss may be a good idea.

 A small area of rocks and weeds in a shady part of the yard may be just the place to start a moss garden. Intersperse ferns and let the moss cover rocks. You don't have to give up your turf, just consider letting it share the space.