Moss by Ulrica Nordström

Author:Ulrica Nordström
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780241374481
Publisher: Penguin Books Ltd
Published: 2019-03-20T16:00:00+00:00

Adam Hart

Gardener

Portland, Oregon, USA

‘My goal has always been to work with Japanese gardens. There is something in the aesthetics and how they are built that I always liked. I really love going to work every day.’ After nine years as a gardener at Portland Japanese Garden, Adam Hart has learned a lot about mosses and how to appreciate them in all their variety. So much so that he is now working on building a small moss garden at the house where he lives in Portland.

‘Mosses are truly unbeatable as ground cover. They’re a smart way to get beautiful green land all year round. And I love the naturalness of moss, not having to deal with a lot of fertilisers and having grass that has to be cut.’ There are just over 350,000 visitors per year to Adam’s workplace. The garden is open all year and is managed by him along with seven other gardeners and volunteers. A large part of their daily work is devoted to maintaining the garden, cutting trees and plants and making sure the mosses are doing well. ‘We remove leaves daily, and in autumn we use a leaf blower to keep the moss clean. During spring and summer we sweep away the needles that fall down from the juniper trees and the Douglas firs with bamboo rams.’

Given the large area, it is hard to believe that, since the 1980s, very rarely have they needed to plant moss in the garden. The mosses are everywhere and have spread on their own. ‘It has been especially nice to see the haircap moss spread and take over. It’s my favourite and I think it’s so beautiful with its deep green colour. In places where we have exposed clean land for various reasons, we have instead prepared the surface so that it has become moss-friendly and then waited for the mosses to take hold. The few times we have transplanted moss we have done it from other moss-covered parts of the garden.’ The most common question Adam gets from visitors from other parts of the United States is how they grow the moss so well. Many want to know what the secret is.

‘I never have a good answer except that this is a very good place for moss to live.’

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