Friday Ferns and Moss by Fernymoss

After all the color on display this week, how about capping it off with some contemplative greeny goodness? There's something inherently peaceful about ferns and moss that both of us connect with on a deep level ... they're not the stars of the Woodland Garden in the traditional "eye popping" sense, but they play a very important role in the overall composition of this part of the garden.

In fact, we tend to think of them as foundational features of the woodland personality here ... in spring and summer they provide an attractive backdrop to the more colorful plants around them while they're blooming, and when most things are winding down, they still provide a lot of lush green interest in the fall, until well into early winter, sometimes staying green until they're completely covered by the snow.

Fernymoss took these two shots on 6 May, 2008 ... the first are the unfurling fronds of one of our Leatherwood Ferns, one of the toughest ferns out there as far as we are concerned. These are the ones you sometimes see used in floral bouquets as "filler." (A shameful waste, I think!) The second shot is a close up of the moss growing on one of the stepping stones Fernymoss made a couple of years ago (I posted an earlier version of this a while back). We'll have to get busy and get some more shots of the other developing ferns soon ... the maidenhairs, ostrich plume and tassel ferns. There's still so much to get cleaned up and now with new plant purchases waiting to get in the ground, we feel terribly behind, just like we do each year, lol.

For maximum effect, please click for the larger image, where you can see a whole lot more detail than you can in these reduced versions. (Firefox users, right click and choose "view image" or "open in new tab" option. Believe me, it will be worth your while!)

Faerieland!

Here's a mossy landscape that just beckons you to take a long, leisurely and contemplative walk among the really little faerie people ... that's what this photo evokes for us. Fernymoss has for quite some time aspired to plant Faerie friendly areas in various spots in the garden and this stepping stone is one of them. (Yes, he's into making those as well!) We do try to encourage moss to take hold around the garden, just because we find it fascinating and really pretty and it lends a certain aged gravitas to wherever it prospers in the garden. For us, it connotes a sense of garden maturity ... that things have been around long enough that the moss has taken hold and incorporated itself into the landscape. And as the old saying goes, a rolling stone gathers no moss, it tends to convey a somewhat comforting aura of permanence ... it's taken a while to get where it is, and it's planning on sticking around for the long haul.

Mosses are bryophytes or non-vascular plants, and have a rather fascinating sex life of their own, as this entry in Wikipedia details quite well. Obviously I have some more homework to do and research to read before I can even begin to consider myself competently conversant in the ways of the mosses. Though an often overlooked (perhaps even considered bothersome) element of gardens, we're fully on board with having them in ours ... They make stellar companions to the various ferns which also tend to inhabit the same spaces as the mosses. We like 'em and want them to multiply freely!

Photo by Fernymoss, taken on 21 April, 2008 using the S700. Note the clearly visible sporophytes on the right side of this photo.