Contained Fields

The Terrarium seems to be quite popular again, not sure this matters or if my post modern brain is just constantly questioning the things I like in relation to the culture as a whole, but when the New York Times writes about something you thought you had just come to on your own, you begin to wonder who the hell is programing you. Whatever the case, at some point this year I became obsessed with moss, I don't remember what lead me to this obsession now, but I spent a great deal of time this spring researching moss and moss cultivation, which if such a thing appeals to you I recommend finding a copy of George H. Schenk's Moss Gardening: Including Lichens, Liverworts and Other Miniatures . This interest in moss lead me to the notion of shade gardening (again see Schenk on this topic) which appealed to me after years of trying to get plants that like sun to grow in my garden (I say it's mine but it isn't mine in terms of "private property", however, since neither the land lady nor the tenets down stairs ever showed much interest in maintaining the area I happily took over the responsibility), I realized what I had long thought to be a deficiency of sun light was in fact an abundance of shade where a great many foliage plants that might die in sunnier environments, could grow unfettered. Somewhere along the way I began to experiment with moss in closed glass containers. The long and short of it was that the terrarium might be the best place for the moss enthusiast since the constant demand for a moist environments makes it difficult to keep moss going green year round (especially in California where water is a rather complicated issue...perhaps another post in and of itself). These were the results: