Animaniacs say:

[HorseloverFat]

My friend Kevin S. from the MKE Arbor Arts Collective, grabbed this strip of moss off a nurse log May 2016.

here is same moss July 2020. I don't know what the plant is, nice small white flowers in early spring.
View attachment 314990

I like that! Judging by those bumper stickers..I’d definitely get along with Kevin.

I like that KIND of moss too (But actually don’t know what it’s called.. the guy from “SerpaDesign” had made mention of it in a moss collecting/identification video, but I can’t recall) there’s a little clump of it on “nurse planting 1” if you look close at it (that moss in general) it appears menacing at very fiber of it’s being.

So that pot is a NICE touch!

 

[Japonicus]

When you open this pic up, there's yet another form of art.
You've recreated the scene of an abandoned barn or house in a forest
that has recently had its roof blown off (debris above).
Or is it a tree house?

I like seeing the plants identified in caption you're doing a cool thing here
and I have to ask how long (climate pending) do these typically last till decomposed
or do you continue with it perpetually seeding new hosts? How long?

 

[HorseloverFat]

View attachment 315083
When you open this pic up, there's yet another form of art.
You've recreated the scene of an abandoned barn or house in a forest
that has recently had its roof blown off (debris above).
Or is it a tree house?

I like seeing the plants identified in caption you're doing a cool thing here
and I have to ask how long (climate pending) do these typically last till decomposed
or do you continue with it perpetually seeding new hosts? How long?

The moss in from a wood pile in the back of my... area. Ironically enough, i “arranged” that pile to be slightly camera attractive. Haha

I’m trying to avoid anything that’s not perennial...I’m hoping that helps with the perpetuity you spoke of, as it had occurred to me, as well.

But as for most of it, my best answer is, “We’re gonna find out!” Hehehe.. i’ve started them all slightly differently.. different overall mediums..different stages of decomposition. As well as the variances in “initiating” the soil/top layer.

Testing the parameters.


I’ll try to provide more details while documenting.

 

[HorseloverFat]

Nurse planting 7.

I’m attempting to somewhat recreate the conditions of a nurse log “stump”.. I’ve seen them many times.. and they always seemed LESS visually appealing than their “downed” brethren.. but upon realizing that this speckled alder stump was just a dead speckled alder stump.. i decided to get busy. (Mentally noting the difference from the standard coniferous wood nurses)
Using a few different collected mosses.. a clover, sweet woodruff, and marsh seedbox from a water dish of plants i collected for these very purposes about 10 days ago..
Then “up top”.. we have a speckled maple seedling..basically imbedded in between layers of moss and hidden (kinda) substrate.

 

[HorseloverFat]

Nurse planting 7 (cont)

 

[HorseloverFat]

Nurse planting 7 (cont)

 

[HorseloverFat]

(The outer moss will die off... looking LESS “phallic” in the future... i hope)

 

[Japonicus]

What precautions do you need to take to overcome fungus gnats
in such a Penjing like setting?

I was thinking about the alder decaying as it will and the seedling planted on top
will root down in, eventually leaving exposed root planting.
I guess the eb and flow of moisture rate makes or breaks the "Goldilocks zone".



This just looks so interesting and KOOL! but temporary, and why I'm asking these things.
If you're ever around Atlanta, Plant City Bonsai gets in some nice rock.
Expensive as all get out, but I'm sure you'd love it.

 

[HorseloverFat]

What precautions do you need to take to overcome fungus gnats
in such a Penjing like setting?

I was thinking about the alder decaying as it will and the seedling planted on top
will root down in, eventually leaving exposed root planting.
I guess the eb and flow of moisture rate makes or breaks the "Goldilocks zone".

View attachment 315127

This just looks so interesting and KOOL! but temporary, and why I'm asking these things.
If you're ever around Atlanta, Plant City Bonsai gets in some nice rock.
Expensive as all get out, but I'm sure you'd love it.

Thank you!
i hadn’t thought about gnats.. but i DO do a heavy amount of controlled indoor overwintering. Hehe.. i use mosquito bits...

In the woods.. they seem to reach a certain level of decomposition.. eventually “secured” into overgrowth or topsoil.. where the log is fed from underneath and sapped in such a way by all the plants it is nursing.. that it seems to hit a plateau-esque purgatory-like stage of development and decay.. like a möbius continuum. Hahaha.. i’m not saying decay DOESN’T occur at this point.. it just seems like preservation occurs through natural balance..

The trick is.. making that happen in my “garden”..

I LOVE rock design ideas.. i find SO many interesting slabs.. but i’m like mile from the car! I’ll start bringing my rucksack.

I’ve been “flirting” with the idea of Patchwork with cement to construct penjing slabs/planters.. control the design from the ground up.

Or earthenware.. i’m just figuring some of my “heat issues” out at the moment.

 

[HorseloverFat]

Shoot! I forgot to touch on the root issue.

Ideally.. once the roots have made their way through the substrate/the moss layers, then my topsoil layer.. the surface of the wood will be at a state to “accept“ the roots, somewhat... i have seen this occur.. even with “conflicting” species... so that’s what i’m going for....

If it get’s to that point and that’s NOT what’s happening.. i might try to “chase“ the roots down the stump.. but i truly have no idea.. we will find out.

I remember Hagedorn has a blog entry about nurse logs.. lemme’ find it “right quick”.

Nurse Log Imagination—Hemlock, Huckleberry, and Salal

I’ve been wanting to do a nurse log as a kusamono planting for quite some time. Always had another project in the way. But recently the creative mood hasn’t led me to work with older tr…

crataegus.com

 

[cbroad]

I don't know what the plant is, nice small white flowers in early spring.

Looks like Lily of the Valley, Convallaria majalis

 

[Leo in N E Illinois]

Looks like Lily of the Valley, Convallaria majalis

Not Lilly of the valley. Flowers more like a minute aster. Tiny flowers. The leaves are one third of the size of Lilly of the Valley.

 

[HorseloverFat]

Not Lilly of the valley. Flowers more like a minute aster. Tiny flowers. The leaves are one third of the size of Lilly of the Valley.

I thought they looked somewhat “aster”-ish.

 

[HorseloverFat]

@Japonicus , speaking of slabs.. here’s a smaller one I “hoofed” back in plans to use it in a crassula ovatica planting.. which I later decided NOT to assemble..

It’s smaller.. but I like it.


(12”/9”/7”)(ish)
Hmmm... might have to try some things.

 

[HorseloverFat]

Oooor how ‘bout medium-large hunks of “Aquarium coral”?

 

[Japonicus]

Oooor how ‘bout medium-large hunks of “Aquarium coral”?

View attachment 315340

This should run a higher pH if you were to pulverize and test it in solution
but I don't think that alone would be an issue for your purpose, especially mucked up IDK.
Should be high Ca and offer Mg. Not sure if these parameters would affect the mosses.
This base is 100% opposite of a piece of wood when these things are considered.

 

[HorseloverFat]

This should run a higher pH if you were to pulverize and test it in solution
but I don't think that alone would be an issue for your purpose, especially mucked up IDK.
Should be high Ca and offer Mg. Not sure if these parameters would affect the mosses.
This base is 100% opposite of a piece of wood when these things are considered.

THANK you!!!

 

[HorseloverFat]

Started actively seeking slabs today... overall found THREE “rock planting rocks” (one just being a rock planting.. the other two being slabs)

I’ll start a new thread for my rock plantings... as soon as i “get some going”

Here they are.. (one of them I already posted in “Share your photos”..

 

[HorseloverFat]

((UPDATE)) Nurse Planting 4

...some aesthetic AND functionality adjustments.

 

[HorseloverFat]

(((Update))) Nurse Planting 3

The nature-inoculated sawdust is WORKING...

This is (if you don’t know) the Nurse planting that I planned on seeding (various perennials) and impregnating through moss spores in the “dressing layer” and impregnated sawdust in the topsoil layer....

I added a “buffer hedge” of alternating mosses to discourage “erosion” due to the surface angle.

I also placed primrose seeds collected from my plants in patches of moss that were then introduced to the soil layers.

(Look close for fungus)