Garden Pic Wednesday: Mossy Lava Rock

-
Once upon at time I bought a couple bags of red lava rock for landscaping use. It's red pumice and readily available by the bag in most big box store garden centers.
Over time I noticed moss liked growing on lava rocks located in shady areas---particularly on the north side of the house.
 Then I figured out I could pick up a moss covered lava rock and move it to a shady teacup with succulents or other container and the moss would continue growing and spreading.
In general, moss thrives in deep shade, but it also likes dappled sunlight. In nature, it prefers the North side of a tree or rock.
Today's Wednesday Pic is a couple extremely pretty mossy lava rocks in a novelty container in my front garden. 
Moss blooms, then makes seed pods. Those little green things are seed pods or  maybe spore pods. I don't think I've ever had a close look at them before taking this picture.
There's 3 rocks in this container 2 years ago; just one had moss already when I put it there. Now it's spread and thrived as you can see.
This container enjoys a bit of Eastern sunlight in the mornings, but is shaded the rest of the day. Fun.



Comments

Post a Comment

Thanks for leaving a comment!

Popular posts from this blog

Thursday Writer's Workshop Prompt: Greatest Triumph

-
Image
My Greatest Triumph Many years ago, my husband and I took a 6-week beginner's course in Foil Fencing.  Now foil fencing swords are thin and straight with a protective cover on the tip. It's more of a classic dueling style of swordsmanship. Victory in foil fencing is gained by getting past your opponents sword defense to stick your sword point against their chest.  It's all about stance and form and is tends to be over fairly quickly. I believe our instructor used the 3 touch point method for a match. The fencing stance form generally taught is French: you stand in a sideways position, sword in one hand aimed at opponent while your other arm is held aloft behind you, bent at the elbow. (Think of any Three Musketeer movie you've ever seen---this is their stance.) The general over-all goal of foil fencing is to keep the body area that can be stabbed by the opponent to a minimum. However, it's important to understand, in fencing, it's not about strength but rather a
Read more

Garden Pic Wednesday: Thriving Rose Bush!

-
Image
  Thanks to a garden club, I've learned how to better care for my rose bush and this year it's thriving! It's thick, bushy and covered in blooms! This is a Julia Child Floribunda Rose. I selected it because I wanted a smaller size rose for my front flower bed and this one grows a max of 3 feet tall and wide. I learned from the garden club the proper time to trim a rose and that's what has made it so bushy. Roses here in Northwest Florida need to be trimmed and shaped the week of Valentine's Day, Feb 14.  The right time will vary from growing zone to growing zone in different places where it's colder, but the correct time in any zone is evident when leaf buds are showing along the stems with even a few small leaves beginning to pop out. The other important thing is buying some Rose Food and fertilizing according to directions.  Tons are dark blue Bachelor Buttons are blooming adjacent to this yellow rose, so the show of blue and yellow is quite striking!  
Read more

Garden Pic Wednesday: Amaryllis & Chinese Stonecrop

-
Image
I have 2 Amaryllis, each in a container out in my front beds: one is a dark, solid red and the other is this reddish-orange & white. Both have been faithful to bloom for like 15 years! Today's other picture is Chinese Stonecrop in one of my patio containers, which is just now starting to bloom. I'm not quite sure how it got there exactly, but it looks really good!
Read more

Mama Kat Thursday: Worst Gift Ever

-
Image
The Mama Kat topic for today is:  "Share a story about the best or worst gift you ever received." You wouldn't think chocolate could be a  worst possible gift, but, in this case, it was. It wasn't even wrapped. It was just a Dark Lindt Chile Chocolate bar that a guy from our singles Bible study handed me. He was a regular at our Sunday night study, a Navy guy in the school for learning how to disarm explosive devices. He knew I fancied chocolate and he happened to fancy Lindt's spicy Chocolate Chile bar. So, one evening at our on base Tuesday Bible Study, he called me aside and handed me one of these Lindt Chocolate Chile bars.   "Here, this is for you, " he said. I said, "Thank you,"  accepted it and slipped it into my book bag to take home for later. " No, " he said, his face clearly displeased I'd dare keep it for myself. "I want you to share it with everyone else." What? You give me a gift, the
Read more

Mama Kat Prompt Day: Childhood Memories

-
Image
It's been raining intermittently today as the tail of Isaac's outer-most eastern band passed over us today. Luckily, no thunder this a.m. so I could get to water aerobics at the Y. Thundered later a bit, but sun is out now. It's one of those liquid sunshine kind of days. I'm also pleased to report, since last night, someone has purchased one of the ties I just posted in my Zazzle store! Cool beans!   Today's Mama Kat Prompt is: What do you remember most about your childhood bedroom? That's a good question and it has a pretty funny answer. First you have to picture that my 2 younger sisters and I shared one large. That by itself is memorable. It must have been at least 20' x 20' in size and the 3 of us each had a corner of it to call our own. I slept in a double bed, while my 2 sisters slept in the bunk-bed our Dad had built. He had carpentry skills and it was a huge, sturdy thing, larger then any store-bought bunk. Here's the funny pa
Read more