Date: Wed, 19 Nov 2008 07:13:05 -0500
From: Annie Martin <mossinannie@gmail.com>
BRYONET
Good Morning Fellow Moss Lovers
I'm proud to share another moss article with you. "Small Miracles" is a
feature article about Mossin' Annie's creative use of eco-friendly mosses in
Leslie Henry's private Zen moss retreat in Brevard, NC. Published in *Carolina
Home and Garden Magazine*, Winter/Holiday Issue, 2008. pp 110-115, the story
is written by Kate Reynolds with photographs by Rimas Zailskas. Special
thanks to Kate for capturing moss magic with her eloquent words and to Rimas
for sharing the marvels of the miniature world of mosses through his
outstanding photographs.
Visit Carolina Home and Garden web site to view Moss article online:
http://www.carolinahg.com/pages/current-issue/holiday-08/small-miracles.php
To get your own subscription to Carolina Home and Garden Magazine, please
register online at: http://www.carolinahg.com/pages/subscribe.php
FREE copies of Carolina Home and Garden Magazine are available at a number
of locations in western North Carolina. To find out where to get your own,
visit: http://www.carolinahg.com/pages/where-to-find-us.php
OR JUST READ THE ARTICLE THAT FOLLOWS:
"Small Miracles"
Carolina Home and Garden Magazine
Winter/Holiday 2008
By Kate Reynolds
Sometimes you have to look beyond the obvious to enjoy nature's gifts. They
hide in unexpected places, waiting for the patient observer to discover
them. Take Leslie Henry's backyard, for example. From the sidewalk, her tidy
contemporary house at the end of a cul-de-sac in Brevard doesn't seem the
type to harbor secrets. But walk around to the back and you enter into
another world: a tranquil sanctuary where every step is cushioned by a deep,
verdant carpet of living green. Welcome to the moss garden.
Tucked at the base of a steep hillside and set beside a lyrical mountain
stream, Leslie's little bit of heaven is a tapestry of textures and hues.
Shaded by tall trees and bordered by stands of ferns, it engenders a sense
of shelter and peace. The ambiance is hushed and ancient.
The garden is fairly young, however, set in place not by decades of slow
growth but in the past year by the magic touch of Annie Martin, better known
as "Mossin' Annie," a local champion and collector of bryophytes - native
mosses. "It was designed to create the effect of a miniature landscape using
varieties from more than 450 types of indigenous bryophytes that we have in
Western North Carolina," Annie says proudly.
Indeed, the effect of looking over Leslie's moss "lawn" recalls viewing the
countryside from the window of an airplane: hills and valleys, an expanse of
forest. There's a rock garden that stands in for a mountain range. It is a
world in microcosm, presided over by a placid seated Buddha statue whose
benign countenance reflects the abiding spirit of the place.
Leslie has a sense of connection to the orient=97her father grew up in Chin
a,
where his father worked for the YMCA. Many treasured pieces of eastern art
grace the interior of her home, and eastern philosophies inform her
worldview.
"I do study and practice Buddhism," she explains, "and my original idea was
for a Zen garden. There was moss here to begin with and because of the
mountain it doesn't get much sun. I've always loved moss and it seemed like
the perfect thing to make it all go together and create an attractive
space."
Mossin' Annie was the ideal partner in manifesting this vision. Petite and
impish, with a penchant for dressing in various shades of purple, Annie has
the air of a charming woodland sprite but is, nonetheless, a very determine
d
woman when it comes to her beloved bryophytes. Her passion is the
preservation of native mosses.
"We have plenty of opportunities to collect and rescue mosses in Western
North Carolina," she says. "There's considerable development that continues
to occur. We work with green developers, the Department of Transportation
and people who are environmentally conscious. They contact us when they're
going to build houses, roads and golf courses and we go in and rescue the
mosses first. The goal is to use them in public or private gardens or,
ideally, to reintroduce them into the community once it's completed."
Leslie's garden is an amalgam of rescued and resident mosses. "Some of the
moss was introduced, but in other areas I took advantage of what was
naturally occurring," Annie explains. "She inherited some good bones from
the previous homeowners, but the rock garden was almost invisible - it was
overwhelmed with hostas." Carefully edited plantings now punctuate the beds,
set amid the moss hummocks and lichens, like 'British Soldiers,' which were
added "for extra accents of delight."
"Mosses are great companions with every plant," Annie says. "They're green
year-round, so when the other annuals and perennials die back, you still
have color. They provide a contrast for bright plants and they're a great
alternative to wood mulch. They don't leach nutrients from the soil and they
help to retain the moisture and provide insulation from the cold."
Resilient and low maintenance, mosses literally live on air and water. "The
leaf of the plant is only one cell layer thick," explains Annie. "It absorbs
all of the water. It has no vascular system - it doesn't have any roots to
absorb water or nutrients. It lives solely on rainfall and dust particles.
So it's extremely tolerant to all kinds of conditions.
"According to the botanists, mosses are 400 million years older than
vascular plants like herbs, so before there was just about anything else,
there were mosses=97and they'll probably outlive all of us."
For Leslie, mosses' sturdy character makes tending to her retreat a fairly
simple task. "I do occasional weeding," she says, "and [the moss] doesn't
like to have leaves on it, so I pick them up or blow them off. It needs to
be watered fairly often, but it takes very little water. I can just mist it
with the hose and you can see how the green just picks right up."
Even the mischief of a local skunk, which attempted to rearrange the moss
beds one night, was easily repaired. Uprooted patches were simply put back
into place and pressed down firmly underfoot. "In fact," says Annie, "the
last phase of the moss planting process, after you've watered it, is to step
on it, and keep stepping on it. That helps it set itself. And you can sit on
it any time you like=97you just might get a wet bottom."
Annie would certainly encourage everyone to sit down and engage the moss up
close. It's there that these wondrous plants truly reveal themselves. "You
need to take a closer look at mosses," she urges, and offers the loupe that
hangs around her neck like an amulet. The magnified plants are exquisitely
detailed: some resembling miniature ferns, others like tiny green
starbursts.
"The immediate impact of the moss garden is the expanse of green," she says,
"but there is another element of color that only comes during the
sporophytic stage." Sure enough, at closer inspection, some of the small
mounds are surrounded by halos of spores; a miniature fireworks display,
just inches from the ground.
This just goes to show that sometimes you find amazing gifts in unexpected
places, like a compact backyard on an ordinary street where ancient plants
invite you to experience the hush and share in the mystery of the complex
world beneath our feet.
"You don't have to be a Zen Buddhist in a garden in Kyoto, Japan, to enjoy
mosses," says Mossin' Annie with a smile. "You can be right here in Western
North Carolina and love them too."
Mossin' Annie offers workshops, presentations, on-site bryophyte
identification and moss rescue, along with moss garden design. For more
information, visit www.mountainmossenterprises.com or call 828-577-1321.
-----------
To enjoy Rimas' fantastic PHOTO LAYOUT.... view condensed online version or
get your own copy of *Carolina Home and Garden* with a full pictorial layout
of mosses. Please share this article with other moss lovers. Go Green With
Moss!
Take care,
Mossin' Annie
--
Annie Martin
mossinannie@gmail.com
Mountain Moss Enterprises
40 Holly Ridge Road
Pisgah Forest, NC 28768
+1.828.577.1321
www.mountainmoss.com
Moss mirrors the intricacies of your inner self.
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