Moss

I heard on You Bet Your Garden recently, a woman named Annie talking about the glory of moss. And it got me thinking that perhaps my shady front lawn would prefer to be moss, rather than fighting to make grass grow there. Already it's very mossy and the moss is a more vibrant color than the anemic spurts of grass here and there. 

Any suggestions on how to encourage the moss to take over the lawn? It's a small lawn, only about 20 x 10 or so, 90% of which is under a shady Linden tree. 

You make a shake with it and spread it, i think. 

The only downside I can imagine would be during prolonged dry season, the moss in our backyard disappears by August. We don't irrigate any of our yard, so I have no idea if it would stay throughout the summer if we did water.

Otherwise I love the look of moss and could definitely see it as a lawn alternative.

http://www.mossacres.com/

Here is a link to a moss farm in PA that sells a moss-shake:

http://www.mossacres.com/product_moss_starter.asp

I've tried for two seasons to grow Irish moss between the stones in a pathway in our backyard.  It does not hold up well to foot or paw (we have a dog) traffic.  We have moss growing naturally in several areas of our yard.  It looks lush and green - but does not transplant well to other areas.  

Thanks for starting this thread.  It's motivated me to try out the moss-shake method.  

I've bought large quantities of moss from Mostly Moss, also in Pennsylvania. They were very nice to work with. Their Facebook page says their new website will be up soon but it looks like you can contact them by phone.

https://m.facebook.com/MostlyMoss/

We have encouraged moss growth as well.  One thing to consider - you can not really walk on it.  It sort of rips up and just becomes muddy dirt if you walk over it.  We are happy with micro-clover for ground cover on our super-shady yard. 

kmk said:

We have encouraged moss growth as well.  One thing to consider - you can not really walk on it.  It sort of rips up and just becomes muddy dirt if you walk over it.  We are happy with micro-clover for ground cover on our super-shady yard. 

That's what I thought as well, that it dies if you walk on it; but "Mossin' Annie", who was interviewed on the YBYG podcast I listened to recently, encourages walking on your moss. Maybe she means more of a faerie walk in bare feet, rather than playing soccer and doing cartwheels (as we do, in our backyard).