I led my first workshop yesterday! It was a Moss Graffiti Workshop for my guerrilla gardening group.
Following a brief slideshow and discussion about moss, graffiti, and moss graffiti, we made a yummy moss ‘starter’ (see the recipe after the jump). I had planned on brainstorming potential tags and artwork ideas, but everyone was raring to go and apply the frothy green mixture, so we just fanned out in small groups and pretended we were hooligans.
The moss starter goes on pretty much clear; in the top photo, Tim is simply embellishing someone else’s handiwork.
Highly recommended project – I can’t wait to see how all our designs turn out!
To make a quick moss starter, you’ll need:
One or two clumps (about a small handful) of moss
2 cups of buttermilk
2 cups of water (or beer)
1/2 tsp. sugar
a blender
container with lid
paintbrush
How to:
1. Crumble the moss into the blender – try to remove any pebbles or insects you find.
2. Add the sugar, buttermilk, water or beer, and blend at the lowest speed until it has the consistency of a milkshake (add more water if necessary).
3. Paint the mixture onto rocks, logs, pots or statuary, or simply pour it on the ground wherever you’d like your moss to grow.
OR: Create some living graffiti. Paint your chosen design on any shaded, damp vertical or horizontal surface. Porous, moisture-retentive surfaces work best (brick, wood, coarse concrete).
The moss starter method works best if it is kept moist until well-established. A twice-weekly misting with a spray bottle is ideal.
I am excited to see how well this works. Keep us updated on the progress. Do you intend on watering it or just leaving it to nature?
Here’s some moss graffiti that a student did in my friend’s Art of Horticulture class: http://www.hort.cornell.edu/department/faculty/eames/artofhort/gallery/images/2006springprojects/22mossgraffitix300.jpg
More galleries from the class: http://www.hort.cornell.edu/art/gallery/index.html
I have been wanting to try this and actually saved 2 bags of moss from some pot bound birches we were root pruning… the moss had grown on a rooftop because the pots were not draining due to roots (everywhere) in the drain holes… I wanted to make a moss-shake for a failing moss lawn at another job… I love the graffiti idea!!!
Very interesting idea — and sounds like a fun project to do! I am curious to see how well it works. Will you go back and water everything until the moss gets established?
Congratulation on your M&T nonmination, by the way!
I will definitely update you all on the outcome. As for watering, most gardeners would have to mist their creations every couple of days.
Fortunately, I live in a rainforest (ie. Vancouver) so I haven’t had to do any of that yet. But should we hit a dry spell, I will definitely go by the sites with my mister.
This is really awesome… don’t think it would work so well in Southern California, but I’m loooking forward to hearing about yours!
I love you all!!! This is wonderful. I want to use different color mosses to create an attractive design all over my lawn. I am in southeastern Pennsylvania and my lawn is mostly shaded and usually damp. How can I learn more about different varietals, and in particular, different color mosses, that will grow well in this area?
I’d love to see some close up successful images of these from Vancouver. The one at the link above spelling “branch out” looks far too crisp to have come from a beer and buttermilk recipee! Please e-mail me images to richard@guerrillagardening.org if you’ve got some. I could include it in my forthcoming full colour book!
Update: the results of this project were a bit dismal. The wall/design shown in the first photo was painted over the next time I went by. The other designs didn’t really stick, either. I’m not totally sure why. I wonder if the surfaces we chose were too smooth, or too… painted. I’m determined to try again, but will do it closer to my house and keep better tabs on it. I’ll also try it on a variety of surfaces.
Try mixing in four ounces of potters clay for every 2 cups of buttermilk. That’s a tip for getting it to stick to rock gardens, should work here, too. I ran across your page cause I’m trying to grow some indoors and I’ve found a whole lot of talk on the buttermilk thing and not many people really trying it. My experiments are still green and in place after three weeks but look more like caked industrial byproduct than moss so far…
It would take a hell of a lot of motivation from someone to put aside the water, and use the beer alternative…
Hope you enjoyed the secondary Digg traffic ;)
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this is amazing! what else can we grow on walls? can we make a vertical garden image with moss and other things? a big growing mural? i could really get into this…. i love graffiti but this natural loving version is beautiful!
Thank you so much this is amazing, finally we can paint the town….
Are there any updates to this? It might not have worked cause the moss wouldn’t like being blended – in the wild it tends to grow in undisturbed places.
Definitely needs soil and damp to root into; if there’s no soil obvious (eg – on the tops of smooth brick walls moss grows, if they’re undisturbed) then usually what has happened is it’s rooted in the soil bits in between the bricks and grown over from there. With some varieties at least they grow out extended bits above the mossy part and that’s where the seeds come out of.
I don’t know much about cultivating moss, but it is an art in Japanese gardening – it’s one of the most difficult types of cultivation to do, getting it to grow over rocks.
hey..im very excited about this possibility, especially because of spring winds blowing through. does anyone know of any vegan alternative though for the buttermilk? my guess is that the milk helps it stick to the wall and i don’t want to use acrylic paint as ive seen suggested elsewhere, so any thoughts? would a simple water/flour mixture work, perhaps? hope everyone’s out there painting in moss!
Hey Fuzzy – I believe the buttermilk acts as an agent to encourage the growth of moss spores… it is full of live bacteria. You could try beer instead. Good luck!
do you know if the moss survives long after we stop watering it (in montreal it rains about once every 7 to 10 days)
http://www.mossacres.com/acc_retention_gel.asp
Moss Slurry – In a blender simply mix the following components: 1 part moss; 1.5 parts water (not too cold);1-2 spoonfuls of water retention gel powder; quarter cup of buttermilk or beer, [or 2 spoonfuls of Liquid Sulfur or Aluminum Sulfate]. Set the blender to “pulse” and/or continue to turn the power off and on to sufficiently “chop” up the moss into small fragments and blend the mixture (with the blender in the off position you may need to use your hand to re-orient the mixture in the blender and then start it again to mix it properly. Within 2-5 minutes the gel will set, and a thick, applesauce-like gel will be formed. If the mixture is too runny, just add more powder and mix again.
Hi there. I have an idea to develop an adhesive porous coating to stick to city buildings which can grow moss, and have designs or advertising carved into them. Any ideas on how to do this? Or thoughts for discussion?
Thanks,
Erin
Erin – I think it would be a real shame if moss graffiti were used for the purposes of advertising :(
Doesn’t it matter which species of moss? some prefer shade some prefer sun, etc……..
Ah first there was your messy old spray can graffiti, then light graffiti, and now moss graffiti, perhaps someone could work out ice graffiti for the people further up north ;)
Hallo peebles
I live in Vancouver. I inherited a pretty big gardening space– so lucky! I’m mad for flowers so I had a tremendous summer garden until dec 5, the nasty frost. early feb. the snows cleared and I had huge patches of dirt with nothing between the river rocks or in the beds. In the summer I had put in irish and scottish moss. Both kakked with the frosts. I have sunny and shady patches. What grows well here year round? I am a new gardener, but a total nutter. Buttermilk, beer? I call that damn good fun! But what sort of moss will grow in sun/shade year-round here?
Have you seen the lovely moss grafitti by el&abe?
http://themoderngardener.wordpress.com/2009/03/10/moss-graffiti-art/
Too bad it only works in places with humidity. Here in the West, most people think humidity is just a myth.
Might this work indoors I wonder… I guess it’s simply a case of more regular misting right?
Just to report, I attempted to grow moss using 4 different recipe combinations mixed with 4 different moss-no luck. Of course, I live in San Diego, Ca, so the weather is not as suitable. I’m going to try the suggestion of using retention gel and also potters clay next. I definitely had a hard time getting a “thick” consistency. I tried reducing the liquid element and also leaving in a bit of soil. If anyone has any suggestions-email me at longrass3@yahoo.com. Thanks! Julie
Check this video out. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zubLxZ0bwpQ
I tried the recipe that called for sugar beer and water. The resulting mixture was too thin (too much beer) but the slurry at the bottom of my plastic container was poured into a pot plant that was growing jasmine and violets. This pot stays moist constantly because of it’s position in my garden. It looked like a sloppy cow pat. But now after aprox three weeks I am now pleased to report that I am starting to grow a lovely little patch of moss in amonst the violets.
horray!
Green graffiti is awesome and rad! I love it!!!
Hey, i have following problem.
i mixed the components but my moos graffiti begins to smell and then it starts to mold.
Does it depends how thick you paint it. The thickness of my graffiti was about 5mm.
What did i wrong, to much buttermilk ?
Any experience with that ?
I have only just got into this in the last couple of days but I have added EM (Effective Microorganisms) in the form of Bokashi Compost Zing (a product available here in New Zealand). It is used in the compost to reduce smell and to ‘pickle’ the organic matter. I added it mostly because I thought the microorganisms would help the moss to flourish, but it should also help with smell and deter mold growth. It is only day two of the experiment so I don’t know how effective it will be but i will keep you posted
I am about to try this. Anyone who was trying it above have any luck? I’m in Montreal and if I can get going in the spring it should be okay – I am worried about the heat of summer though.
Several days ago I painted a sculpted planter with a thick coating of the moss buttermilk recipe and placed it in shade. Today the planter is still green but covered with white spores. Is this part of the process? Should this be happening?
This is so great. I painted some rocks in my backyard and its really working :D
I just tried this on a few different surfaces inside my loft. So far I have sprayed it everyday atleast once, but it keeps getting completely dry by the next time. Is this okay? I did add a bit of clay to the mix to help with sticking.
Hi,
i tried this the time yesterday. But i couldn´t get the mix to get so thick and heavy as you are saying..it stays a liquid with some tiny pieces of moss inside.. it´s way to thin to paint with it. I tried doing so on a horizontaly laying down wooden plate. This way, it can´t fall of. But i´m not sure it will grow at all. Do you maybe have different kinds of moss in the USA? Or is your buttermilk thicker? I´m from Germany btw.
Fluffy – try vegan yogurt (I like the plain kind made with coconut milk) it still has the live cultures to encourage moss growth but is vegan and cruelty free so you don’t have to rely on the buttermilk.
what species of moss can i use for moss graffiti ?? how long do it take for the moss to completely grown ?