By Vic LeBlanc

Photos courtesy of Moss Acres (www.mossacres.com)

Over the past couple of years, talk about the use of moss as an alternative ground cover has spread in a gradual fashion, somewhat akin to how it naturally grows. Trend setting news makers, like Martha Stewart, who has talked about moss on her TV show, have trumpeted the virtues of moss as a naturally viable way to make the most of a shady situation, so to speak...

According to Al Benner, president of Honesdale, PA-based Moss Acres, shade is actually the most conducive environment for mosses. Often mosses are already naturally thriving in the very same places where grass is traditionally hard to grow, such as under and around trees and in between stepping stones on flagstone paths.

David Benner and Al Benner, founders of Moss Acres.

The secret is in the 'sauce'

Via a method called "hydro-mossing," areas ranging from 1,500 square feet to more than an acre of clean, clear-surface soil can be cultivated with a special "moss sauce," actually a blend of mosses, water, acidifiers and a water retention gel powder. With regular misting, the moss will naturalize and fill in bare areas within a year or two or even sooner.

"Almost always fern moss is used on pathways because it will take a lot of foot traffic," Al notes.

"People have less time these days and it IS trying to make a lawn successful in a location where it never really will be. When my dad (retired Professor of Ornamental Horticulture and "moss guru" David Benner, co-founder of Moss Acres) established his first moss garden, it was because he decided to let nature take control."

A mix of fern moss and spring flowers provides an enchanting, almost storybook garden setting.

The making of Moss Acres

David Benner has been gardening with moss since the early 1960s, beginning with the wooded areas around his home in New Hope, PA, which since has become an incredible lush moss garden of much renown with no grass lawn for more than 40 years, "and it just keeps getting more beautiful," notes David proudly. "We’ve had over 7,000 visitors on personal guided hours over the past 30 years."

The two-acre Benner garden can be seen in a video called "Made in the Shade," which he hosts. The video and his booklet "Gardening with Moss" are both available through the company's website (www.mossacres.com).

Beautifully naturalized, a legion of "quaker ladies" provide a perfectly colorful complement to this fern moss lawn.

At Moss Acres, the Benners preside over more than 50 acres of, well, moss, of which they grow four varieties; in addition to the moss, they now propagate eight kinds of ferns.

As Al puts it, "Moss Acres was established with folks who want more of an immediate effect in mind.

"People can order high-quality moss in large quantities for ground cover and moss gardens and our transplant success rate of well over 90 percent with locally-grown moss planted across states and regions is better than I would have thought in my wildest dreams.

"What I've found is that the professional community is really into it, for the most part, but there's never been a resource for it, other than scrambling through the woods for source materials. A lot of landscape professionals don’t know there’s a high quality source for it, and if they did they would probably incorporate it more because of its versatility and adaptability.

"Having the ability to install (quantities of moss) over a large area opens up a whole new avenue in an instant gratification society where people want to see results now."

Fern moss, haircap moss and shortia are used together for a wooded garden area.

Making – and shipping – moss while the sun shines

He continues, "We are able to maintain adequate supplies and turn orders around very quickly, within 24 to 48 hours. We don't ship weekends but we ship Mondays through Wednesdays, so the mosses don't sit and overheat in a UPS warehouse over the weekends."

According to Al, mosses come from the 50-acre site, surrounding woods and by arrangement with selected landowners and construction sites across northeastern Pennsylvania, sometimes where the plants would otherwise be ripped out.

"The requirements that we're finding to ensure a high rate of success is adequate shade," Al explains. "That means no long-term afternoon sun, and adequate moisture, which keeps the moss looking healthy, thriving and spreading.

Flagstones and fern moss create an appealing low maintenance footpath in an area where grass might be too difficult to grow.

"Even if it has the shade, moss will just sit there unless it has moisture. A summer shower or thunderstorm will get it looking green again. Since it has no true roots, it does not suck water out of the ground. (Applied) moisture is what makes it spread."

Best of all, he states, once it's in and a solid mat, moss is really difficult for weeds and grass to infiltrate and moss lawns are environmentally friendly, low maintenance "no mow" lawns.

In addition to the mosses and ferns they commercially cultivate on their 50-acre site, the Benners maintain a moss garden with a waterfall feature, a favorite place to relax during the day, if even only for a few minutes.

Moss vs. grass

Whenever a customer has a problem propagating moss, Benner says it generally takes only a brief description and/or a couple of questions to get to the root of the issue.

Many people, he says, try to treat moss like the conventional plant that it isn't by trying to insulate it with leaves, which actually rots it; debris must be kept off moss by raking or using mesh netting. The only true enemy to the plant, he warns, is direct sun.

Moss Acres cultivates four kinds of mosses and eight types of ferns for landscaping. The moss and ferns can be cultivated together to create a natural woodland effect.

"We dry moss before we pack it, so mold won't rot it, which is the exact opposite of what you might do for other plants," Benner explains. So, he says, treat moss as the inverse of grass by using lime to discourage and sulfur (powder, liquid or dust) to encourage it.

"It's amazing," he adds, "but we can take a (properly dried) piece of moss that's been in a box for two to three months, water it, and in an hour or two it's a lush green. It responds very quickly...so it establishes very quickly, almost like it is enjoying the environment it's in without stressing. It's very adaptable."

A growing enterprise

Although the Benners and their staff do not currently do installations, they anticipate beginning to offer that service within a two to three-hour radius of northern PA.

"Honestly it's so easy to install," Al points out. "All you need is a clean soil surface, adequate shade, moisture -- and acidic soil is a third consideration, ideally between 4 and 5 on the pH scale, but that is not as paramount as shade."

Other up and coming projects include an experiment with a small residential urban moss garden in Center City, in Philadelphia, on a friend's patio, "a little green oasis in a building shadow in the city," according to Al, complete with plant misters, moss and vines on the walls."

Shady areas that prove too difficult for grass are often a perfect place to encourage or actively cultivate a "no mow" moss lawn.

They are also working on two commercials project in Manhattan, one, utilizing big planter beds full of moss that, situated within a building shadow, get about one hour of sun a day; the other is the propagation of an irrigated moss garden inside a large corporate office atrium area.

Surprisingly durable as a groundcover, mosses provide lush greenness to shady spots from wooded backyards to (with the Benner's help) to urban concrete jungles. Utilized in Japanese gardens for centuries these extraordinary plants have been sorely neglected in Europe and the U.S. until recent years, according to David Benner, who achieved his dream of a maintenance-free shade garden – and a whole new livelihood besides, with moss.

This cushion moss, planted with a fern at the base of a tree, is aptly named as the masses appear to resemble soft, almost velvet-like pillows.

Up on the roof...

As an aside, he offers more food for thought: "You know, a new and exciting use of mosses is their use on roofs of houses, factories and other buildings. We haven't gotten into it yet but we expect to be working with landscapers who are already doing it."

Already used in several countries around the world, David points out that moss roofs add oxygen to the air, absorb heavy rains, like a sponge, and are very attractive, besides.

"It's getting to be a very popular 'green' approach," he notes, clearly pleased with yet another aesthetic and functional application for the plant.

"Moss guru" David Benner uses reusable mesh moss netting to protect newly transplanted moss from birds and small critters that like to dig. The netting, he says, can also be used as a ground cover "cover" in the fall, eliminating the need for raking.

For more information on mosses, ferns and all the peripherals for growing these plants – as well as Al's deer fencing business and (shortly) a brand new escape-proof cat fencing endeavor -- check out the Moss Acres web site at www.mossacres.com.