Moss!

Recently I've become a big fan of moss. I don't know much about it, and until a couple years ago it was always just something that grew in certain places in my lawn.

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This is a great time of year for moss, at least in St. Louis. Nice and wet, cool or cold (the moss seems not to mind the cold), and not too much bright sunshine.

Last year (or was it the year before?) I started digging small patches of moss from various parts of my yard and putting it in the cracks between the flagstones of the patio under the deck.

Before that there was just the bare crushed limestone in the cracks, and the rain dripping through the slats in the deck would wash it out and splatter limestone "dirt" all over. The moss has taken quite well there, and has been keeping the patio clean.

The only problem is I need to spray it down once every day or two during dry, hot spells in the summer. Plus the chipmunks seem to like to eat it. Apparently the wrens like to use it in their nests too, but they just take little pieces so it's not so bad. They don't use every piece though, and just leave the scraps out to dry.

The nice thing about moss is that you can usually rehydrate these dry pieces and they'll be fine.

As you might expect, there are some nice mossy rocks in the stream:

Moss is also growing "wild" in the cracks between the other patio's flagstone. It's a different kind of moss, and is "flowering" right now, or whatever the correct term for it is:

I've read that if you have moss growing in your lawn, then there aren't enough nutrients for the grass to grow, and the soil is probably too acidic. Both easy problems to fix to get rid of the moss, but why would you want to?

I'm starting to really appreciate the beauty of moss.