African Garden + winter

Mossy

The more I garden, the more I come to appreciate moss. Especially in winter, in the absence of snow, the moss beckons one to get down low and feel the verdant velvet. This is just a small patch in the garden, under a shrub. During the growing season, it rarely even registers on my radar, but now that the killing freeze has put an end to blooms outdoors, anything green and growing stands out starkly.

Once the kids' play set is no longer in use, I'd like to expand the bed to create a little moss garden there, with the above clump and other little patches of moss as the starting point. The little Labrador violets (Viola riviniana) need to be removed for the pure, mossy experience. Sumptuous, luxurious moss, that appeared on its own, requires nothing of me beyond weeding.