DULUTH, Minn. - (KRT) - In moist shady spots, the velvety green carpet calms and soothes. Even in newer gardens, moss adds a comforting patina of age.

Moss will grow where nothing else will. With enough moisture, it will remain green all year. And if moss does dry out or turn brown, a good rain usually will revive it.

In autumn, as the air turns crisp, moss is in its glory. The cool, moist weather helps it grow and deepens its color that contrasts with the changing fall colors around it.

Whether moss lines a flagstone path, blankets the side of a tree trunk or clings to a rock wall, the tiny, primitive plant brings richness and serenity to a landscape.

"It's restful," says Jean Bruno, a Duluth Master Gardener who has cultivated moss in gardens. "If you have a bench or chair there, it's peaceful. And there's kind of a fresh smell. When I look at lush green moss, I think, how many thousands of years has it been here? And it's still here. There's a connection."

Indeed, moss is resilient and adaptable. Experts say traces of moss have been found in fossils 400 million years old. That's older than fossils showing ancient ferns.

The Japanese were the first to use moss to create entire garden landscapes in their temple gardens. While such expansive carpets of moss are rare in the United States, Bruno says moss is slowly gaining converts.

In shady areas, where grass is difficult to grow, moss can be a ground cover. It can carpet shady slopes or be a soothing element in rock gardens, water gardens and Zen gardens. Its greenery can help connect flower gardens with areas of shrubs and trees.

As an accent, moss can be encouraged to grow on clay pots, rocks, garden statuary and between steppingstones. It shuns new concrete, but will grow on old concrete that's become porous.

"Moss gardening can be a small area," Bruno says. "It can even be a stump that you develop. Just a little bit of moss sparks things up. Without it, it would be so drab."

With moss, you can take a problem area, such as a spot with poor drainage, and turn it into a peaceful moss haven.

"Instead of fighting it, turn it into a focal point," Bruno suggests.

Start by picking a good location, Bruno advises, one that's shady and moist without heavy foot traffic. Moss prefers acidic soil.

Where moss appears naturally probably is a good site.

"Everybody has a piece of ground where moss grows, like the side of the house or back of the garage," Bruno says.

Few garden centers sell true moss, other than sphagnum moss which grows in bogs and is used in wreaths and to line wire planters. So moss is propagated in two primary ways - transplanting clumps or sprinkling dry, crumbled moss over wet ground.

"This is the time to transplant because as things turn brown, moss stays bright and green and you can see it," Bruno says. "And it's cooler at night now and that's when moss grows."

Another propagation method is to mix moss and buttermilk in a blender, then spread the mixture on objects or on the ground where moss is desired.

Margaret Anderson, president of the Lake Superior Rose Society, has encouraged moss to grow in a corner of her Duluth yard where grass wouldn't grow. The area, under large maple trees, is shady and has poor soil.

"I've nurtured it to let the moss take over," she said.

The soil is clay-based, so Anderson added sand to loosen it, then transplanted chunks of moss from other parts of her yard. Over the past few years, that corner of bare, hard-packed soil has turned into a rich green carpet.

Anderson doesn't use fertilizer, which can burn moss. Maintenance is simply keeping the moss moist and occasionally, but gently, plucking out little weeds by hand, then patting the moss back into place.

"It's very tranquil, and it looks so lush," she said.

Because moss grows slowly, it takes patience to cultivate it.

Over the past three years, Bruno has been creating a moss garden for Jim and Lucy Miner at the couple's home near Island Lake.

"I saw the moss here so I left it," Bruno said while standing in the woodland garden that measures roughly 50 by 20 feet.

As the Miners' head gardener, she has been developing and tending flower gardens on nine lakeside acres. In the woodland garden, she not only allows moss but encourages it.

The slight rise with a scattering of spruce trees has became a cool woodland retreat with a welcoming mix of mosses, lichen, ferns, hostas and other shade plants. Logs, tree stumps and rocks sport clusters of moss, lichen and liverwort, giving the area an aged look. Moss-ladened stumps serve as planters. A curving pathway is taking shape. Pagoda statuaries signal that it's a place for quiet reflection.

To create the moss garden, Bruno and her staff worked with the natural landscape. They removed fallen brush and weeds. Tree stumps were left. Rocks and fallen logs were hauled in. If the logs already had moss growing on them, all the better. Several kinds of moss were collected from around the property and transplanted on the ground, on logs, between rocks and in rock crevices. An irrigation system helps keep the area moist.

Companion shade plants - ferns, hostas, astilbes, lilies of the valley and forget-me-nots - were planted.

Although not true mosses, Irish and Scotch mosses are included in the landscape, to fill in gaps until the true moss takes over. They also flower and provide a restful green ground cover in the sunnier spots. Irises and hens and chicks also were planted in sunnier spots.

In three years, the transformation has been striking but it's not yet complete. In a year, moss will cover more of the landscape, a pathway of granite slabs will meander through the garden and a bench will allow one to stop and take it all in.

"In a couple of years, the garden will be emerald green," Bruno said.

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© 2002, Duluth News Tribune (Duluth, Minn.).

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