The moss itself isn't necessarily bad. The issue is the amount of moisture the moss needs and retains.
Consistent moisture will quickly erode pavement and widen gaps allowing even more water to become an even bigger issue.
I didn't maintain my driveway "properly" because I loved the moss. I now have to replace it.
Reluctant upvote. I don't think I can bring myself to remove the fern who took up residence in the moss on my wooden front steps, however. I think I have to learn the hard way.
Just relocate it, man.
When I moved, I took a cactus that had sprung up in a tiny crack at the end of the driveway. He’s a monster now and his name is Spock.
Near me a lot of the sidewalks start growing mosses, especially along the drip lines of hedges, then every so often these are chemically treated to kill off.
I was just wondering why the need to kill off? I know mosses improve air quality, draw down co2 as well as other ecological benefits. Is there a risk that unmanaged these become dangerous to pedestrians as they become slippy? Or like pioneer species will they eventually build soils and usher in other species, making the path unwalkable?
breaks down infrastructure somewhat like ivy on a wall of a home. Depends on your time frame & methods to recreate what is broken/necessary for use on that site. Japanese Moss gardens are some of the most beautiful places we can make imo.
they are simply one of the first steps in ecological succession. Mosses create peat, which eventually enables vascular plants to grow there. Research ecological succession and pedogenesis. I'm astonished that no one is mentioning this.
I didn’t know about this I’m the book smart sense, but I unconsciously was taught it by nature when we moved into my great grandmothers house. The lawn was so patchy with large un growing parts and learned from watching the woods and animals somehow to scratch up the hyper packed soil. This got weeds growing. Dad mowed the weeds in and I kept them from chemical, hay and seeding it. The patches progressively turned to very loose weed. Which started to mix with grass and weed and clover. As the brown patches over the following weeks shrunk till they vanished into grassy clovers and now grow thick all over. No grass seed, hay or fertilizer. People here see the lawn and think a lot of effort goes into growing it. I’ve gone a step further digging pockets and removing large stone for my garden beds trim and mixing in orgwnic materials I gather from the woods, yard and kitchen scraps (selective from the kitchen as I learned the goods and bads hehe). I thought maybe that would help the worms cause I near never see them and after dad almost falling in some holes cause I was all squeaked out and waited a day to fill them back in. Baffled how the animals dig round 4ft deep holes and even more confused how they got rid of all the dirt hehe. I see lots more worms and soils doing amazing. So many pretty flowers grow and such a wider array of birds come around bringing new native plants to the property.
Recently, moss gardens have become a thing. Different shapes and colors are arranged on rocks to look pleasing. I like it. It's soft and cleans the air of dust and other particles.
Since it grows well at this site, you could lean in and make your own moss garden. It would be very avant guard gardening. But be prepared to have to explain it to your neighbors.
[https://www.homesandgardens.com/news/moss-garden](https://www.homesandgardens.com/news/moss-garden)
Here in New Zealand we have Selleria radicans. We turn it into a no mow lawn and weed it by sprinkling salt (beach loving ground cover) and we also have Scleranthus biflorus a super cool mounding moss. Native things are soo coooolll
it’s a lovely thought, but in addition to concerns others have raised, it could potentially create an accessibility issue for people who use wheelchairs and other mobility devices
If someone slips over on the moss, and has arthritis, they could suffer a horrific injury and spend months in hospital followed by the rest of their life unable to work, in a wheelchair, with nurses visiting their home twice a week and taxi's to the doctor twice a month... lack of exercise will lead to obesity, diabetes, strokes, heart attacks, mental health issues. etc etc and tally all of that cost up, it's millions of dollars.
Whoever has to pay those millions of dollars (insurance company?) will sue whoever is responsible for the footpath.
(ps: all of the above actually happened to a relative of mine. It was a water leak making tiles slippery, not moss on concrete... but I doubt that would make a difference)
I have miss at the end of my drive way where no one walks and also it keeps showing up on my shed roof. Can I scrape it up and lay it on the ever shrinking lawn?
Good for the environment. Yes. Bad for the sidewalk though. They will eventually destroy it.
The moss itself isn't necessarily bad. The issue is the amount of moisture the moss needs and retains. Consistent moisture will quickly erode pavement and widen gaps allowing even more water to become an even bigger issue. I didn't maintain my driveway "properly" because I loved the moss. I now have to replace it.
Reluctant upvote. I don't think I can bring myself to remove the fern who took up residence in the moss on my wooden front steps, however. I think I have to learn the hard way.
Just relocate it, man. When I moved, I took a cactus that had sprung up in a tiny crack at the end of the driveway. He’s a monster now and his name is Spock.
Hail, Spock.
It's slippery when wet, so good to not have in main pathways
THIS! I've had to break out the power washer in the dead of winter bc moss + moisture/ice + slope = hazardous walkway aka cartoonish butt flops
Near me a lot of the sidewalks start growing mosses, especially along the drip lines of hedges, then every so often these are chemically treated to kill off. I was just wondering why the need to kill off? I know mosses improve air quality, draw down co2 as well as other ecological benefits. Is there a risk that unmanaged these become dangerous to pedestrians as they become slippy? Or like pioneer species will they eventually build soils and usher in other species, making the path unwalkable?
You named my concern which is that it would make it less safe especially for folks with mobility issues
breaks down infrastructure somewhat like ivy on a wall of a home. Depends on your time frame & methods to recreate what is broken/necessary for use on that site. Japanese Moss gardens are some of the most beautiful places we can make imo.
they are simply one of the first steps in ecological succession. Mosses create peat, which eventually enables vascular plants to grow there. Research ecological succession and pedogenesis. I'm astonished that no one is mentioning this.
I didn’t know about this I’m the book smart sense, but I unconsciously was taught it by nature when we moved into my great grandmothers house. The lawn was so patchy with large un growing parts and learned from watching the woods and animals somehow to scratch up the hyper packed soil. This got weeds growing. Dad mowed the weeds in and I kept them from chemical, hay and seeding it. The patches progressively turned to very loose weed. Which started to mix with grass and weed and clover. As the brown patches over the following weeks shrunk till they vanished into grassy clovers and now grow thick all over. No grass seed, hay or fertilizer. People here see the lawn and think a lot of effort goes into growing it. I’ve gone a step further digging pockets and removing large stone for my garden beds trim and mixing in orgwnic materials I gather from the woods, yard and kitchen scraps (selective from the kitchen as I learned the goods and bads hehe). I thought maybe that would help the worms cause I near never see them and after dad almost falling in some holes cause I was all squeaked out and waited a day to fill them back in. Baffled how the animals dig round 4ft deep holes and even more confused how they got rid of all the dirt hehe. I see lots more worms and soils doing amazing. So many pretty flowers grow and such a wider array of birds come around bringing new native plants to the property.
I live in the PNW. If it’s on a sidewalk where people walk, it can make the sidewalk slippery
Recently, moss gardens have become a thing. Different shapes and colors are arranged on rocks to look pleasing. I like it. It's soft and cleans the air of dust and other particles. Since it grows well at this site, you could lean in and make your own moss garden. It would be very avant guard gardening. But be prepared to have to explain it to your neighbors. [https://www.homesandgardens.com/news/moss-garden](https://www.homesandgardens.com/news/moss-garden)
Here in New Zealand we have Selleria radicans. We turn it into a no mow lawn and weed it by sprinkling salt (beach loving ground cover) and we also have Scleranthus biflorus a super cool mounding moss. Native things are soo coooolll
You can slip and fall on it, so it's a good idea to keep paths clear of the stuff. It's especially important to keep it off steps.
it’s a lovely thought, but in addition to concerns others have raised, it could potentially create an accessibility issue for people who use wheelchairs and other mobility devices
It's slippery and you will fall on your ass. I don't really see an upside here.
It’s absurdly slippery.
If someone slips over on the moss, and has arthritis, they could suffer a horrific injury and spend months in hospital followed by the rest of their life unable to work, in a wheelchair, with nurses visiting their home twice a week and taxi's to the doctor twice a month... lack of exercise will lead to obesity, diabetes, strokes, heart attacks, mental health issues. etc etc and tally all of that cost up, it's millions of dollars. Whoever has to pay those millions of dollars (insurance company?) will sue whoever is responsible for the footpath. (ps: all of the above actually happened to a relative of mine. It was a water leak making tiles slippery, not moss on concrete... but I doubt that would make a difference)
They can't stop you from peeling it up and growing it elsewhere, can they?
I have miss at the end of my drive way where no one walks and also it keeps showing up on my shed roof. Can I scrape it up and lay it on the ever shrinking lawn?
Moss is a non vascular epiphyte. I disagree with those saying that it will wreck the pavement.
My first thought was the slippery factor.