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Ground moss?
steven.g.garner
Posts: 133
in Plants
Hello all.I’ve just finished building this planter, filled with rich compost / soil and manure and planted my favourite tree ever - the wonderful tree fern. I’m going keep underplanting simple and will plant some shuttlecock ferns around the base but looking for a ground moss to cover the bare earth - would Irish moss do the thing? I’m looking for an undulating soft covering if that makes sense?
0
Posts
Collecting wild moss is illegal. A thin covering of acid soil (peat if you want to use up what you already have) will encourage wild moss spores to grow. Or go looking in your own garden. Mind-Your-Own-Business is used as a moss replacement in some Japanese style gardens. (Kingston Lacey Nat Trust). But it is invasive and will escape.
My preference would be for evergreen ferns. The native Harts-Tongue would be excellent. Shuttle Cocks ferns in my garden are lovely when they first open, but get a bit tatty when the weather is hot and windy.
"Have nothing in your garden that you don't know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful."
Your planter doesn't look particularly deep and appears to be set on a hard surface - if you haven't provided drainage, the soil may well become rather wetter than you anticipated.