Moss ?

[Robert2502]

I've got a wild area at the end of my rented garden that strangely only I can access but no one is sure who it belongs to , its just a tangle of broken down Willows, nettles and hawthorn scrub, but there is loads of moss growing as its a river bank , is moss any use in any stage of growing food , is it a useable resource say as a compost ect ?

[nickdub]

anything organic will rot down - I'd be tempted to plant some bocking 14 comfrey in the scrub area , then you can harvest that.

[Snoop Puss]

Sorry to ask what might not be a popular question: is it not a valuable habitat?

[nickdub]

My rule of thumb with "natural" habitats is to make sure it says as least as messy as it was when I found it. I figure introducing more plants and cutting back anything which is big and dominating the space lot will provide more opportunities for different sorts of creatures.

So I go for :-
1) keep it messy (eg no lawns)
2) introduce plants which have flowers, fruit etc (not too many foreign ones)
3) go for long lived stuff, so that even after I'm gone, the habitat will stay complex

[Snoop Puss]

It's a difficult issue. I sometimes think that adding different plants and breaking up an existing habitat actually makes it more difficult for the existing creatures. It might be as messy, but it isn't the same. And a big dominant mass of one type of plant - in this case moss - provides a particular kind of ecosystem that perhaps shouldn't be unnecessarily disturbed.

I say this as someone who took a forestry agent's advice and ended up destroying a meadow. Ten years later and it still hasn't recovered. Neither has the insect life and, hence, neither has the bird life. It's among the worst things I've ever done.

[rary]

Snoop I have put a like to your above comment as it highlights the need to give some thought to what could be a sensative area (ground not subject) having moss in the area would indicate damp slightly acidic soil, if it is part of a similar larger area there is not the same danger of an environmental mistake as it is not a isolated habitat, and as the you have shown even taking advice from what should be considered a reliable source isn't always the right advice, we do need to give more thought to our actions