To the Rescue!

Now that spring is ever so slowly returning to my neighborhood, today seemed like a good day for one of my personal spring rituals. Our past five days have been chilly, grey, and rainy, but the rain has served to melt away the very last dregs of snow. This is a real cause for rejoicing, but it also revealed how badly the lawn suffered from winter's ravages.

We are not well-manicured lawn people; with lots of shade trees and plenty of lawn apathy, we can only grow some grass, but lots of moss. I think it's beautiful, soft, and fun to walk on, and since I'm the one that mows the lawn, my husband's desire for more "real grass" gets vetoed.

The towering piles of snow killed some of the grass and moss, leaving big bare patches scattered throughout the lawn, and our resident deer herd, digging and foraging for something to eat, dug up their fair share of moss. We scraped up some large patches of moss with our enthusiastic shoveling, so it was clearly time for my spring ritual - Moss Rescue Day!

Big bare patch

Deer digging patch

Moss Rescue Day consists of walking around the yarn, picking up any scraped or shoveled moss patches and using them to fill in the bare patches. I know, it doesn't sound exciting and I'm posting odd photos of dirt, but it does my heart good to save the moss and try to make the yard look a bit better and greener.

Before: Ugly bare patch

After: Bare patch filled in with rescued moss

I don't have nearly enough rescued moss to fill in all the bare spots, but I do have a plan. In the next month or so when temperatures start to warm and grass and the existing moss start to really grow, I'm going to make several batches of moss milkshake, pour it on any places that are still bare, and happily watch my new moss grow. My neighbors already wonder about me, so I may be providing them with some extra entertainment. 

These lovely green patches of moss in my rock garden are already reproducing and spreading by producing spores, all part of the beauty of moss and why I look forward to Moss Rescue Day!