Mountain Moss — sustainable landscapes
Moss Gardening Book -- SUCCESS! 0
THANKS to each of you who has bought my book, The Magical World of Moss Gardening. It all started here in my own moss garden. Soft cover versions are now in the 3rd printing. Hard cover books are already out of print (although I have some saved for my customers). I’m excited that I’ve finally received my first royalty check from Timber Press. I celebrated this momentous occasion with my best mossin' buddy, Leila, my dearest brother, Dale, and my precious mother, Rachel.
If you don’t have your book yet or want to get another one to share with a friend… and you want to show your appreciation and direct support of my mossy endeavors, then please place your book order for an autographed copy through my Web site. If you have found my book helpful, please take the time to provide a book review. I’m encouraging comments be posted on Qutee -- ?Moss Gardening Book. For those of you who have bought books through Amazon, a 5-star review will be greatly appreciated.
Web Site Updates 0
Mountain Moss is pleased to announce that our Web site has been revamped and updated. Our online Moss Shop now provides easier checkout. We’ve expanded our moss product offerings and added new moss species to our exclusive selection.
Mountain Moss ships trays and moss mats across the country and we appreciate all the professional landscapers, DIY gardeners, Bonsai designers and terrarium enthusiasts who choose our live, thriving moss colonies for your projects.
Moss Landscaping Services 0
Our landscape services include site consultations, turn-key installations and a bit of hand-holding for DIY folks with our moss garden mentoring option. As a licensed NC Landscape Contractor and expert on moss gardening, Mossin’ Annie and her trained moss team can transform your garden with the year-round green appeal of verdant mosses. Our largest project to date, over 2500 square feet of mosses installed in Madison, Georgia between snow storms in February 2014, is looking magnificent this year. Time is the true test of success! 
Another major cool project now in the works is the Ira B. Jones Elementary School Alumni Moss Garden in Asheville, NC. 
Childhood friends are organizing an alumni group crossing all generations to create a learning moss garden as our first effort together. To complement the learning garden, we’ll develop a protocol for curriculum standards to mirror the expectations of science educators who teach about the Plant Kingdom. We want to expand the focus to include our planet’s first land plants – bryophytes. Donations are welcome in support of this educational program.
A shout out for DIY moss gardener, Dick Shullman in Connestee Falls near Brevard, NC. 
One of my lectures in Fall 2014 peaked his interest. Then a site consultation in November provided him with a better understanding of moss planting methods. And now, he’s become a moss gardener extraordinaire. In fact, his moss garden is so impressive already that it was included on the community garden tour in June 2015.
His gnome village is captivating.
Mossin' Annie's New Mossery 0
Mountain Moss has a new Mossery which is located in a shady grove of mature pine trees in Brevard, NC.
The expanse of green appeal is moss-some! 
If you live nearby, we invite you to come to MOSS-apalooza – The Grand Opening of my Mossery and Book Release Party on Saturday, September 5th from 2 – 5 pm. You can stroll along paths or sit a spell to soak in all the beauty. At 2:30, expect a bit of speechifying about my book, The Magical World of Moss Gardening, and of course, I'll be happy to sign your book. You might find moss fairies flitting around this green oasis. If you are a moss DIYer, this is your opportunity to buy some cool mosses for your projects.
In 2015, we’ve tackled the enormous task of moving our Mossery and all of our moss cultivation operations to a convenient location near downtown. After clearing tons of English ivy in preparation (a challenging and laborious task captured on YouTube video), we have about 5000 sq ft of shade and sun moss species in production – container trays for DIY projects, moss mats that roll out like emerald carpets.
It’s a beautiful setting for a Mossery and only a couple of miles from home. My moss assistants and I get to enjoy cardinals, robins, doves, and even a crow (that we’ve named Royce) flitting all around and serenading us while we work. We can get into the swing of daily production duties to the beat of an incredible drummer, Jeff Sipe, whose studio is nearby. To our delight, we have three white squirrels and their gray brothers and sisters frolicking around. Occasionally, an Eastern box turtle wanders through. Sounds enchanting? Well, these pesky critters and birds create challenges for our cultivation efforts. We’ve resorted to using greenhouse-type shade screens over trays and mats to avoid devoting time to incessant repairs. The realities of being a moss farmer…
Have you been craving mosses for your home or business? Maybe it’s time to expand your moss footprint in your landscape. Autumn and even winter are ideal seasons to plant mosses. Transform your grass lawn into a moss carpet or create a small moss focal feature with live mosses available at our new Mossery or through our online Moss Shop. Shipped live and fresh, home gardeners and landscapers can select from a variety of mosses including familiar choices as well as exclusive specialty species.
We will continue to schedule special appointments for interested moss shoppers. In the near future, Mountain Moss will offer designated moss shopping days as well as a series of hands-on moss gardening classes/workshops at our new Mossery. I’ll keep you posted with details in the next newsletter. In the meantime, please realize that the Mossery is a production facility and therefore, it is NOT open to the general public on a regular basis. Thanks to Jeffrey Fletcher, innovative photographer, and his daughter, for being our very first “by appointment only” customers (http://jeffreymfletcher.com).
We’ve had some other distinguished visitors as well – Dr. Larry Mellichamp from Charlotte, NC (author, Native Plants of the Southeast, Timber Press, 2014); a group of student researchers from South Korea funded by LG Global Challenge; and J. Paul Moore, aka “Moss Man” and superb photographer from Nashville, TN (jpaulmoorephoto.com).
For a Mossery appointment or to rsvp for MOSS-apalooza and obtain directions, please contact: mossinannie@gmail.com.
Y'all come!
Moss in the Media: Like a Rolling Stone 0
Moss in the Media... I'm always excited to share when an article appears about mosses. This time the story is about me in Carolina Home and Garden magazine. Thanks to Melanie Bianchi for her writing talents and Jeff Miller for his photography of Gucci and me. Unfortunately, the photos were shot while my moss garden was still under snow in March. No green just white to see. More photos in the print copy that didn't appear on their Web site. Here's the link: http://www.carolinahg.com/pages/current-issue/spring-10/dig-it-like-a-rolling-stone.php Carolina Home and Garden 2010 Spring issue. Written by Melanie Bianchi. Former media maven Annie Martin senses opportunity like a plant feels light — and she greets it face-to-face. While engineering an Atlanta appearance by Mikhail Gorbachev in 1992, she briefly delegated her duties to an assistant so she could hop out of the production truck and shake the hand of the General Secretary as he departed the stage. “What do you say to a world leader?” reflects Martin, a diminutive blonde who’s perpetually dressed in purple. “Well, I’m a Southern woman, so I said, ‘We’re just so glad you could be here.’” [caption id="attachment_415" align="aligncenter" width="199" caption="Gucci Girl Dog and Mossin' Annie"]
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Out comes a deep, smoky laugh. Still, one gets the sense that not much deters her. And Martin brings that same hybrid of ambition and twinkling humor to her current passion: rescuing indigenous mosses from development and replanting them in residential gardens. A native of Asheville reared in Kenilworth, Malvern Hills and Beaver Lake, Martin says she’s never taken her family’s deep Buncombe County roots for granted.
“I’ve always felt blessed to be born in these mountains,” says Martin. “I’m one of the lucky ones. I didn’t have to move here.”
As “Mossin’ Annie,” she’s dedicated herself to the preservation of the more than 450 species of bryophytes that grow naturally in Western North Carolina. Via extensive networking, she’s alerted whenever a construction project is slated that will disrupt a spread of moss, and works with the development party — “everyone from the land-use planners to the property owners to the guys driving the bulldozers” — to salvage what she calls one of botany’s “most overlooked” horticultural offerings.
The fascinating facts on moss are legion. For starters, it is, like the Blue Ridge chain itself, one of the world’s oldest natural entities: moss goes back more than 400 million years. And because it survives without a root system, it’s more adaptable than any vascular plant, even similarly ancient ferns. It is comparatively easy to harvest, transplant, propagate, and resurrect after a long dormancy. “You could take a piece that had been dried in an herbarium for 40 years, rehydrate it with a squirt of water, and within five minutes the photosynthesis will start again, bringing it back to life,” says Martin.
Plus, it’s pretty — picture tranquil Zen labyrinths or shady Arthurian glens. The word Martin uses most often is “magical,” although she’s quick to point out that some bryophyte types do have a degree of vertical reach, rather than the traditional spread that’s “flat and tight.” Certain types of moss even thrive best in sunny spots.
And, if Martin has her way, all of them could contribute to something she envisions as nothing short of an ecological revolution. “No landscaping plant,” she asserts, “could be more truly sustainable.” Besides needing a quarterly weeding (yes, that’s just four times a year) and a reasonable amount of naturally occurring or harvested rainwater, moss spreads require none of the drastically polluting maintenance of traditional lawns and gardens. That means no mowing, no pesticides and no herbicides.
So why not moss? Unfortunately, an attitude persists that moss is an invasive species, a nuisance rather than a godsend. Excluding the grand gardens of Kyoto, Japan, moss is woefully underappreciated as a viable alternative in residential and commercial landscaping, says Martin. “The information gap,” she declares, “is a chasm.”
But it’s one she is filling in rapidly, thanks to her various pending and acquired grants, including one from WNC Agricultural Options that would help former tobacco farmers learn to commercially cultivate moss. From a niche artisanal landscaper, Martin seems poised to become a vocal champion of sustainability, a leader in her field whose aim is to convince folks here and beyond to sow significant expanses of acreage with moss.
“And when that happens, there’s going to be an increasing demand for a more extensive variety of mosses available to consumers, provided by the emerging live-moss industry, she says. A moss emergency, if you will.
Forays to Duke University and consultations with bryologists across the country and the world have helped augment Martin’s scientific knowledge, and an alliance with the Brevard chapter of SCORE— a consortium of retired executives who offer business tips to entrepreneurs — and the Senior Resource Network, have fortified her toehold in the burgeoning eco movement.
“Replacing lawns with moss means green savings in the pocket and green advantages for the environment,” says Martin. Referring to the regional biodiversity that sustains her beloved bryophytes, she adds: “It’s the right place. And the right plant.”
A micro-pause. “At the right time.”
Written by Melanie Bianchi. Freelance writer in Asheville, NC.
Contact Annie Martin at Mountain Moss Enterprises at 828-577-1321 or mossinannie@gmail.com . Or, visit www.mountainmoss.com .
