You might say that Carol Meredith has taken the path of least resistance.
She had landscaped all around her house with great success. There are beds filled with hostas and astilbes, and overhung with crepe myrtles and dogwoods. Cleyeras and Yoshino cryptomerias form evergreen backdrops for seasonal displays.
But a little niche to the side of the house is her favorite spot. It was bramble and thicket when she and her husband, Jack, moved in back in 1997.
Now, it is a velvet carpet of moss, a soft and inviting green. From above, a great white oak spreads its double trunk in opposite directions, throwing its shade onto an understory of dogwood saplings and the open floor of moss.
"I was looking for a groundcover to fit in here, but every groundcover has its problems. In the meantime, moss just started expanding -- and the more I let it expand the more I liked it," Meredith said.
Meredith has lined the woodland idyll with white kousa dogwoods and Delaware azaleas. A bench invites some stolen moments of contemplation in the rear of the garden.
Meredith has dealt with reoccurring cancer since her initial diagnosis in 1993. She finds some solace in the garden. "We learned we can get rid of my cancer, but how do you keep it from coming back? If I can't do anything else I can sit, cut weeds and dig acorns," Meredith said.
She sits on a mat in the moss garden and slits tiny weeds out of the moss carpet with a steak knife. She cleans up with a whisk broom.
"You can't just pull the weeds or the moss comes along with it," she said.
A huge number of acorns also have to be removed to prevent them from sprouting.
"When I am sitting there doing that everything just falls away," she said. "If I am in the house laying down, that is sick time. I need to be out in the garden, out in nature. This is my spirituality more than anything," she said. "Anything you're worried about, it just melts away."
Meredith went through Master Gardener training a while ago at the Forsyth County Cooperate Extension Service.
"I learned a lot" she said, "but you never learn as much as you do when you are killing plants yourself."
Robert Earl, a local landscape gardener, has helped the Merediths with their property since keeping up has proven difficult for Carol on her own. Earl takes care of the mulching and pruning and any other task that requires strength and stamina. Meredith said that Earl regularly goes over the moss with a blower to remove debris. She will also use a mower to clean off the moss surface. She also uses a broom.
"You can sweep it just like a rug," she said.
Meredith believes that the moss that has carpeted her garden is called Hypnum or sheet moss. It is a common moss that succeeds even in areas that are exposed to some sunlight. Aside from transplanting a few patches of moss to desirable areas, she has not "cultivated" the area in the traditional sense. The process has been gardening by editing.
"It occurs to me that the fun thing about my moss garden is that I am trying to grow what everyone else is trying to get rid of," she said. She has heard it called moss lawn. "Exactly," she said. "No fertilizer, no plugging, no Bermuda grass. Perfect."
Question of the week
Dear David: I have a question about a prolific berry vine which, according to comments from other people, is either Turquoise or Porcelain vine. This vine is found at the Shaffner Park Par Course on Silas Creek Parkway. Its growth pattern this year reminds me of Kudzu. I have checked my book on North Carolina wildflowers. There is no mention of that plant. Can you provide me with some information about this vine, including its proper name and whether or not birds feed on the berry? -- Lenna Severs
Dear Lenna: Ampelopsis is a common weed vine originally from China, Korea and Japan. It has spread from North Carolina to New England, covering some areas the way kudzu does in the South. The beautiful berries are spread by birds and other animals in their droppings.
Ampelopsis is considered an invasive plant and should not be used in a home garden.
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