Frozen Moss

It was 12 degrees here yesterday morning but by 2 in the afternoon, the temp was around 25 degrees and I was stir-crazy so I left the house to hunt for teeny cushion moss. All of a sudden, these things are HOT, HOT! I've started selling to people building fairy gardens and they are loving those little buggers!
After about 10 minutes in the woods, I learned the value of carrying a pocket knife. Those mosses were frozen solid in the ground. Back to the house I went and got the knife. That worked like a charm! In fact, they looked better than usual when I arrived home and they were thawed out. So off I go today to get some more with my knife in hand and lots of little zippy bags. Look for a bunch to be listed on all sites this afternoon!

A Frigid Morning!

Really cold here this morning - about 10 degrees with a wind-chill of -5. Not my favorite weather!
Today I will be taking inventory and listing. We are supposed to be back up near 50 by Friday and I plan on
hiking a lot down at the lake. There are so many interesting varieties down on that lake!
My goal this weekend is to find Rhodobryum Roseum aka Rose Moss, I think it's one of the most beautiful mosses on the planet. Perfect for terrariums and fairy gardens! When it's sporing the centers turn black. Just gorgeous!

Vivariums

I sell lots of mosses to customers who are building vivariums. Nearly all have frogs and are really excited about their creations. Below are some pics from one of my customers in Miami. She purchased sphagnum moss from me and we have been emailing back and forth. It's wonderful when you become friends with your customers and  it's great for me because I can glean a lot of information from people like Ashley. I know a lot about moss but not a lot about frogs. I also have learned what my Viv customers are looking for that are hard to find. It's great information for building a business!

Ferns

I'm getting lots of messages from my customers requesting ferns. I know a lot about mosses. More than the average person. But when it comes to ferns, I know very little. There are 3 main varieties of ferns that grow on my land. One is a maidenhair, one is "the big one" and the other is "the tiny one". I've sent out young maidenhair ferns to a dear customer in Miami for her vivarium. I will find out today how they are doing. If they are doing well, then I will identify the other two varieties and proceed from there. Chances are, these will not be readily available until Spring. We have been very fortunate here so far this winter. The temps have been higher than normal and the ground is still very soft. But if the weatherman is correct, that will all change tomorrow and looking ahead, overnight temps will be below freezing for the next 10 days. The ground will start to freeze. That will not affect harvesting moss which have no roots but it will affect plants that need to be dug.
Today I will be harvesting Partridge vines and a sampling of the ferns. I would like to send some ferns to a couple of my vivarium customers as a test run. I want to see how they do in shipment and after planting. Specifically, how long it takes before you see new growth. I would like to ship some to the west coast, the upper midwest and to the deep south.
Email me at ebedford4@aol.com if you are interested.

A New Year and a Great Start

What a great start to the New Year. Lots of orders already and today I found a goldmine of cushion moss. It figures..... I had finally decided to stop selling cushions until Spring. The ones I was finding back here were just too wet and the color was starting to get "funky".
Today I found tons of beautiful green cushions. Also nice frog moss and what can only be described as a field of tree clubmoss and creeping wintergreen. Gorgeous stuff! I'll spend my whole day hiking tomorrow. I plan on getting as much as I can before Tuesday when the temps drop like a rock here. Monday will be Sheet Moss day. The sheets on this mountain are the best around - I was really disappointed in the sheets I saw during my hike today. They just didn't compare.
My Partridge Vines are selling like crazy on Ebay so I've added them to my Etsy store. Already I have a custom order for them along with other packages. Who'd a thunk that those crazy vines would be so popular? I don't think I can take a step in the woods without walking on them - They are everywhere!
Still cannot identify this moss I found - it's driving me crazy!

Identifying Woodland Plants

I've been working on identifying several mosses and woodland plants.
It is a time-consuming venture.
Today I identified one of my plants as Maidenhair Spleenwort. Now I will gather more and try it in a terrarium. If all goes well, I'll start listing.
Another plant that is a challenge is this small plant that resembles an air plant. I have never seen anything like it. There is one in my front garden that popped up a few years ago. It would be perfect in a terrarium because it never grows or sets seed. Just stays the same, year in and year out. I may go out and dig it up today and see how it does in one of my terrariums.
Waiting for the mail lady. Lots of packages to go out today! I scheduled the pickup and now I'm beginning to regret that. Yesterday, she was 2 hours early. With my luck, she'll be 2 hours late today. I can't leave the packages out on the porch because she refuses to get out of the jeep. She just sits there like an idiot blowing her horn.
Well, enough venting about the mail, I'll get back to my research!

Snowing!

Right now it's snowing - time for a change of plans....

I've been brainstorming all morning about new things to sell on my sites and I've decided to go with terrarium accessories and a line of fairy garden plants and products. 

Today I shall start digging out all the things I've been collecting over the years. My creative spirit is soaring!

I want exciting original things created from recycled and natural materials. 

Once done, I'll post pics and links to my listings! 

Dodging Bullets & Torrential Rain

Hiking these past two days has not been fun. Yesterday I got halfway up the trail and suddenly there was a lot of shooting off to the south of me. Muzzle loader season has begun. Seems like it's more dangerous out there than rifle season was. I chose to stay close to the house to hunt for some mniums. I lucked out and found lots of them all along the dirt lane running beside the woods. I also found a really neat moss that is lime green. I'm trying to identify it. So far no luck.
Today I got up and headed immediately out to hike because I knew the rain was on it's way. I had just gathered some mniums and several medium cushions and then the rain arrived. By the time I got home, I was pretty cold and wet.
Hopefully tomorrow will be better for hiking. I know it's supposed to be cold out but I think I can handle that. I'll be hiking at the park down the road - I don't dare go into the woods until everyone has their muzzle loaders packed away for the year! I desperately need more medium mosses. It's not that there is a lack of them but they are so difficult to spot with the leaves on the ground.

A Balmy Christmas!

I loved the balmy 50 degree weather today but it sure didn't feel like Christmas! At 2:30 I escaped the noise and madness and strolled back into the woods for some peace and quiet. Lately, I've been noticing color more and more in those woods. The red berries on the Partridge Berry Vines and these small trees with red berries. I'm not sure what the trees are - I need to find out. But I do know this.... I want to dig some up and bring them to my yard. I want to surround myself with color. Now that the fall foliage has come and gone, everything looks so brown and dead and colorless. I need color! And the red is so Christmassy!
What better time to plan next years winter garden than now when I can see what is missing?
Tomorrow I shall dig up partridge berry vines and plant them under my evergreen shrubs in front of the house. They won't get much sun there so I think they will thrive. A small stream runs from the woods along my property line to the road. Those trees with the red berries are growing along that same stream. I found some small saplings and I shall dig them up and plant them along the stream where I can see them from the dining room window. There's a nice big empty space there just waiting to be filled.
And there are about 20 small holly trees growing under the tall pines in the woods. A few would look nice  behind the shade garden. With time, they will get berries just like the tall ones in my front yard.
I may gather some teeny ones for a terrarium. I've seen some hollies only 3 or 4 inches high sprouting back woods.
I am so blessed to have this land to look to for ideas and inspiration!

Merry Christmas All!

Merry Mossy Christmas Eve!

Today looks to be a busy day for me - wrapping packages, bagging and shipping moss and hopefully a quiet hike at Koon Lake. Right now it's not too cold out. I believe it should get up in the mid 40's.We've really been lucky this year - no snow and only a few nights in the low 20's. The ground hasn't frozen yet.
I've decided to gather some Partridge Vine for selling online. Partridge Vine is wonderful to plant in a terrarium with a little cottage and let the vines run up to the roof. I've done that with a covered bridge and it sold right away. It is also a great plant for a winter garden - it is evergreen and gets red berries. I plan to add more to my shade gardens this year and may even do so this week. Fall is a great time to plant here. I can see where my perennial plants are and it's nice and damp out there but not too wet as in the spring.
Off to get to work! Have a great day!

A Fresh Start!

I have been so busy with my moss sales thanks to the holidays and haven't had much time to post. Right now, it looks like the rush is now behind me so I will get back into posting and try to do it on a regular basis.
The woods are ever-changing with the weather. Every time I head up the mountain, I see different things.Right now I am concentrating on gathering all I can before the snow starts to fall. With the leaves on the ground, it's been a challenge to find cushion mosses - I almost wish I could walk up there with a leaf blower!
Other mosses, however are so easy to spot - frog mosses and the sheet mosses stand out like a sore thumb and boy, are they ever gorgeous at this time of the year!
I've been collecting some new varieties and having some success selling them on Ebay & Etsy. Fern moss is so much easier to harvest right now. It seems the freezing and thawing really lifts them and they are so easy to remove. The mniums are sporing right now and they, too are easier to spot at this time.
I recently found tons of spoon moss in an area that I rarely hiked and those are becoming very popular with my vivarium customers.
I have added my twitter link to this blog. Do follow me! You can get a look ahead to what I will be selling over the coming weeks!

Great Weather This Week!

Checked the weather and it is going to be great for the next week. Time to check the water lines and cut up some downed trees in the woods for heating the house.
My water system is a gravity fed system. Up the mountain there is a spring where the water bubbles out of a rock ledge. I built a concrete cystern around the ledge. At the back of the cystern is the ledge. At the front of the cystern is two pipes  -  one for the water line and way above it is one for overflow. There is a roof on the cystern to keep it clean. I have a flexible pipe that runs from the water line pipe to my house. Because the cystern is so high up on the mountain, by the time the water gets to the house, there is really good water pressure. It's the perfect system - no electric pump like you would have on a well and the best spring water you could imagine - all for free. Anyway, I regularly walk the water line to check for leaks. It runs through a stream bed until it gets down near the house. The running water in the stream bed keeps the water line from freezing.
No doubt, after that insane snow over the weekend, there are lots more downed trees in the woods. Should be a challenge walking through some areas. I had already earmarked some to cut up for firewood and I am bound and determined to use as little electric heat as possible this year.
I decided to store some mosses in a couple of my cold-frames. Ironically, there's sheet moss growing on the floor of two of them. If I set my cushions and frogs on top, they will be right at home! Funny thing - I decided to move one of my cold frames to another area. When I went over to tear it down, I found a little stray kitty in there! She's a smart one - it's so toasty in that cold frame. So I left it there for her. There are so many feral cats around here from the local farms and I leave food out for them each day. I love all God's creatures great and small!

Orders and More Order!

So many moss orders this morning! I am pumped!
I will box everything up and get to the post office by lunchtime.
Then I need to get out and hunt more mosses. Unfortunately it just now started to rain. YUCK!
I hear the temps are going to drop like a rock too. Oh! How I hate the winter!
It was a challenge collecting mosses yesterday with all these leaves in the woods. I did manage to find some nice ones. There is a big stand of pines up on the ridge. I think that's where I will head today. I haven't been up there in months. The pines will shield the rain and there won't be leaves around. That will make for an easier time collecting!

Shhhh - The Moss Can Hear You!

Looks like a little ear on the moss - LOL!

British Soldier Lichen

OH! Almost forgot!
I was down at the towship park and right smack in the middle of the horse shoe pit I found a ton of pixie cups and British soldier lichen! Never before had I seen the British soldiers. I gathered a few pieces of both. I'll probably list the pixies but I am keeping the British soldiers for my own terrarium. Times like this, I just don't know what to do.... I hate to clean out an area but at the same time, if someone plays horse shoes, those lichen are going to be demolished. Regardless, I just took a bit and left the rest for now.

Frog Moss!

Today I went hiking up behind the horse pasture. I haven't been up there in a year or so. I started out looking for an old bottle dump that I remembered from years ago and then gave up and just started looking around. I spied some moss on rocks. It was brilliant green so I went over for a closer look. I expected to see sheet moss that was brighter than normal. (Nothing is normal now that Fall weather is here). It wasn't sheet - it was frog moss! Entire boulders just covered with it! I've never seen anything like it before and so wish I had a camera. There were many, many boulders of it - so beautiful! I peeled one of the rocks and packed it up in one of my bags. It wasn't one gigantic piece as I first thought - it's several 5-8 in pieces that fit together like a puzzle. So cool! I listed a package of 3 pieces and they sold right away to a vivarium person. I've listed another package. That will leave a piece for me - I'll probably use it in my paludarium.
Tomorrow I will be grounded for the day - Emily is using the car which leaves me with the monster jeep. My plan is to do yard work and work on my terrariums. No doubt I'll end up hiking again. If I do, I'll be sure to have my camera!

VICTORIAN CHERUB & PILLAR TERRARIUM - LIVE MOSS

I had a pair of white candlesticks with cherubs and a pillar. One was a little chippy on the bottom. Not worth much that way. I looked at it and pictured a boston fern in that pillar. Found some great fern moss and made a terrarium. Listed on Ebay - ends 10/21. Check out the listing HERE

MINIATURE TERRARIUM IN A VINTAGE PERFUME BOTTLE - 2" - TINY!

Sometimes I find mosses and I envision what I would do with them in a terrarium. Then I hunt the best container.This time I found an antique perfume bottle and HAD to do something with it! Here's what I made! I listed it on Ebay and it ends tonight. So many wonderful people have sent me emails about this piece. It was a joy to create. My Ebay listing is HERE.

Moss Heaven Again

I spent yesterday morning out hiking and collecting mosses. I started up the mountain and decided to go to Moss Heaven. I got a wonderful bag full of cushions and some of the best frog moss I've seen in ages! What a wonderful place I've found! I am careful not to over-collect in that area - it's the right thing to do, plus there's plenty of other areas to collect from.
On my way down the mountain I got a call on my cell that I had to be in Bedford at 11:30. It seems every time I go up there, something comes up. It turned out to be a good trip to town. As I was driving I came up with a brain storm. I am going to start terrarium classes. I think it will be so much fun! I'll do groups of 5 or more. That way even just a small group of friends can participate. I started advertising when I got home. I need to make up some flyers to put in the stores. And business cards.
I also decided to do the Christmas Fair at Mann's Choice. I'll do up as many terrariums as I can. All sizes for all kinds of folks. I can decorate them with pretty bows for gift-giving. I haven't done a fair since my Antique Dealer days. I am pumped!