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This blog is a record of my plants and garden projects. I have two gardens. One garden is in my backyard in New Brunswick (zone 4b). It is just a small plot of land but it is filled to the max and changes quite a bit each season. The second garden is at the cottage in Prince Edward Island (zone 5b). This property has over 100 acres and an infinite amount of potential. At this site I am working on the much larger landscape projects and it contains a large collections of trees, bamboo, and shrubs. I am most interested in hardy bamboo and japanese maples. I hope you enjoy my blog and maybe you might learn a little from my experiences and mistakes.



Todd



Tuesday, January 17, 2012

Mini Gardening

I have always liked the look of mosses, club mosses, liverworts, hornworts etc... Anything small, green and tuff as nails.
When it comes to identifying these things I have not a clue where to start. Well, I guess that's not true. My wife's uncle is actually a moss indentification expert in Ontario. I should probably send him a couple pics.

I really like the texture of different miniatures. They usually really display how many different shades of green there really are.

I started by getting this shallow terra cotta pot. They are terrible pots to have in Canada. The freeze and thaw cycles usually destroy them in a couple years. I simply peeled chunks of different miniatures from anywhere I could find them and then let them fill in the spaces.

Spring



Summer



Summer



Fall



I really wish I could take some macro shots but I only have a point and shoot.
The liverwort really seems to dominate the pot. It's aggressiveness is obvious and probably a big reason why it is such a pest in the nursery business.

I think I will make a few more pots like this next summer. Very easy, no maintenance and tons to look at.

TC
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3 comments:

  1. HenryJuly 30, 2012 at 4:20 AM

    Hi,

    I just bought three containers of clumping bamboos today, Fargesia denudata and Borinda macclureana. I was doing some research online about these bamboos and came across your site. I'm very glad to have found it, there are a lot of information here, and I find it inspiring too. I would like to start a shallow moss pot like you did. What is involved in maintaining something like this? How often do you water them? How much sun do they get?

    Thanks,
    Henry

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  2. TCJuly 30, 2012 at 7:39 AM

    Thanks for the kind words.
    I think you could use any shallow pot at all. In order to get it started, I simply found different clumps of moss and transplanted them. I keep the pot in almost total shade. The moss seems to thrive and it keeps the weeds down. I don't water the pot, rainfall seems to be enough. However, if you were trying to get one started during a hot dry season, I would mist it daily until the differeny mosses get established. Avoid the green flakey liverworts. I have found them to be too aggressive.
    Good luck.
    TC

    ReplyDelete
  3. HenryAugust 3, 2012 at 9:16 PM

    Great! I have already started scouting for different kinds of moss I can take home with me. I will take a look at Home Depot this weekend to see if I can find a nice shallow pot to start this. Thank you for the info. I will check back on your blog to see how your garden's doing. Take care.

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