encouraging moss on rocks
 

I have an earth bank in my garden, created a few years ago when I dug into the
hillside to make a flat area. The bank is mostly at 45 degrees, and for the
time being I have grassed it. It has stabilised and all is well, so soon I will
plant it with ground cover. The problem is the part of the bank that is
steeper. It is 70 deg at its steepest, and every year a bit more shale falls
down due to frost. With more enthusiasm than sense I ordered 20 tons of hard
white limestone, and I have built a retaining wall 10ft high and 20ft long. I
have left little niches in it for planting, but the immediate problem is that I
now have a huge expanse of bright white rock to look at. Honestly it really
hits you in the eye. I bet they can see it from space! Anyway, I'm looking for
ways to tone it down, and I thought about the moss and other green gungy stuff
that is growing quite happily on ancient walls nearby. Does anyone know how I
can speed nature up a bit, and get a 50 year old covering of mossy stuff in a
much shorter period of time?
I should add that what I know about gardening and related topics could be
written on the side of a bilberry.
Thanks in advance to anyone who can help out.

Bill

"Bill" wrote in message
...
I have an earth bank in my garden, created a few years ago when I dug into
the
hillside to make a flat area. The bank is mostly at 45 degrees, and for
the
time being I have grassed it. It has stabilised and all is well, so soon I
will
plant it with ground cover. The problem is the part of the bank that is
steeper. It is 70 deg at its steepest, and every year a bit more shale
falls
down due to frost. With more enthusiasm than sense I ordered 20 tons of
hard
white limestone, and I have built a retaining wall 10ft high and 20ft
long. I
have left little niches in it for planting, but the immediate problem is
that I
now have a huge expanse of bright white rock to look at. Honestly it
really
hits you in the eye. I bet they can see it from space! Anyway, I'm looking
for
ways to tone it down, and I thought about the moss and other green gungy
stuff
that is growing quite happily on ancient walls nearby. Does anyone know
how I
can speed nature up a bit, and get a 50 year old covering of mossy stuff
in a
much shorter period of time?

Paint it with yogurt.

--
Brian

Brian Watson wrote:
"Bill" wrote in message
...
[...]
Does anyone know how
I can speed nature up a bit, and get a 50 year old covering of
mossy
stuff in a much shorter period of time?

Paint it with yogurt.

Fresh limestone's a sod, isn't it? If you've got a mossy area
somewhere, you can also uproot bits of it and stick to the new
stonework with very thin glue. If the habitat is suitable for moss,
it'll spread quite quickly; indeed, if it's suitable, the moss will
appear anyhow, especially with Brian's yogurt treatment - thin the
yogurt with water, by the way. If you've got a spot of cowdung to mix
in, that'll help too! Mmm!

Mike.

"Bill" wrote in message
...

the immediate problem is that Inow have a huge expanse of bright white
rock to look at. Honestly it really hits you in the eye. Anyway, I'm
looking for
ways to tone it down, and I thought about the moss and other green gungy
stuff
that is growing quite happily on ancient walls nearby. Does anyone know
how I
can speed nature up a bit, and get a 50 year old covering of mossy stuff
in a
much shorter period of time?

I recently bought a rather fine cast concrete green man to hang up on the
garden wall and worship. The guy who sold it to me said I could get it to
age by painting it with live yoghurt. Mind you, in your case you'd need
tons.

Fogey

Paint it with yogurt.

Would that work? There are 22 square yards of wall. It would need a lot of
yoghurt. Any particular flavour?

Bill

"Bill" wrote in message
...
Paint it with yogurt.

Would that work? There are 22 square yards of wall. It would need a lot of
yoghurt. Any particular flavour?

Plain is best and cheapest.

"Live" ideally, but don't assume that anything that has been in a
supermarket's chiller cabinet is actually still alive.

--
Brian

Would that work? There are 22 square yards of wall. It would need a lot of
yoghurt. Any particular flavour?[/i][/color]


--
Brian[/quote]

Isn't yoghurt one of those things you can breed lots of from a pot?

Bill wrote:
::: Paint it with yogurt.
::
:: Would that work? There are 22 square yards of wall. It would need
:: a lot of yoghurt. Any particular flavour?
::
:: Bill

You wouldn't need a fantastic amount - thin it down as has been suggested,
either with water or milk and put it on via a spraygun...you'll find that it
will just run off very dry rock, so you may want to damp it down first with
the hosepipe and then use the sprayer....you don't need a thick coating of
yoghurt, you just want a very thin 'misting' on the rock, to encourage algy
and other microscopic plants to flourish.


HTH

On 25 Sep 2004 18:16:20 GMT, o (Bill) wrote:

I have an earth bank in my garden, created a few years ago when I dug into the
hillside to make a flat area. The bank is mostly at 45 degrees, and for the
time being I have grassed it. It has stabilised and all is well, so soon I will
plant it with ground cover. The problem is the part of the bank that is
steeper. It is 70 deg at its steepest, and every year a bit more shale falls
down due to frost. With more enthusiasm than sense I ordered 20 tons of hard
white limestone, and I have built a retaining wall 10ft high and 20ft long. I
have left little niches in it for planting, but the immediate problem is that I
now have a huge expanse of bright white rock to look at. Honestly it really
hits you in the eye. I bet they can see it from space! Anyway, I'm looking for
ways to tone it down, and I thought about the moss and other green gungy stuff
that is growing quite happily on ancient walls nearby. Does anyone know how I
can speed nature up a bit, and get a 50 year old covering of mossy stuff in a
much shorter period of time?
I should add that what I know about gardening and related topics could be
written on the side of a bilberry.
Thanks in advance to anyone who can help out.

Bill

Fresh cow sh**, sorry, manure, watered down to a thin slurry and
slopped on with a heavy decorator's brush (or should that be a
decorator's heavy brush). Or horse manure for that matter, except
cowsh is much easier to disperse. All you need now is to find some
cows!


--
Chris

E-mail: christopher[dot]hogg[at]virgin[dot]net

In article ,
Brian Watson wrote:

"Bill" wrote in message
...
Paint it with yogurt.

Would that work? There are 22 square yards of wall. It would need a lot of
yoghurt. Any particular flavour?

Plain is best and cheapest.

"Live" ideally, but don't assume that anything that has been in a
supermarket's chiller cabinet is actually still alive.

Not all 'foodstuffs' bought from supermarkets have EVER been alive,
but as far as I know entirely synthetic yoghourt is still being
worked on.


Regards,
Nick Maclaren.

"Chris Hogg" wrote in message
...

Fresh cow sh**, sorry, manure, watered down to a thin slurry and
slopped on with a heavy decorator's brush (or should that be a
decorator's heavy brush). Or horse manure for that matter, except
cowsh is much easier to disperse. All you need now is to find some
cows!

Good point.

Cow or horse poo would work, but it's hardly user-friendly.

:-))

Hence - yogurt, which is fine until you spill a large carton of it
indoors....

}:-\

--
Brian
Henry Fielding: "All Nature wears one universal grin"

Fresh cow sh**, sorry, manure, watered down to a thin slurry and
slopped on with a heavy decorator's brush (or should that be a
decorator's heavy brush). Or horse manure for that matter, except
cowsh is much easier to disperse. All you need now is to find some
cows!

Now that's an idea! No problem finding cows -- we have them in abundance round
here. Now if I can get the cows to stand on the high ground and back up towards
the precipice before discharging their runny goodness over the edge I wouldn't
need to brush it on. To get the consistency right I should maybe put laxitives
in their feed.

Bill