Where the Wild Fern Grows

Today I was meandering around our yard pulling weeds and picking up sticks after last night’s torrential rain.  I came upon this lovely little fern growing under the Butterfly Bush surrounded by moss…lush, beautiful moss.

Bob and I have decided after spending several hundred dollars on grass seed over the last three years that grass is over rated.  In the spring of our first year living here, we spent tons of money, planted grass seed and had a beautiful grassy park in our backyard.  Every spring day, we marveled over the beauty of it.  Then the leaves came out on the Oak and Hickory trees and by mid summer we were left with only spindly, wispy grass that simply wanted to lay down and die.

Instead of fighting nature by cutting down all of the trees, which the trees were why we moved here in the first place, we’ve done a lot of reading and searching the internet for alternatives to that high maintenance green lawn we expected to have. The only thing we have found that could possibly give us green is moss.  We are encouraging its growth by keeping the yard as clean of debris as possible.  Bob swept the yard with his leaf collector and to our amazement, the moss is growing. Large patches are showing up and the added delight are the little ferns that seem to go hand in hand with the moss.  They grow in the most inhospitable areas absolutely loving cement and stones. One little mound of moss in my flower garden has wrapped itself around three crystals and either pushed them up from the ground or there is a bigger rock under the moss.  We are not disturbing it to see as we don’t want to ruin it.The moral to my story is to trust God, have patience and live with nature instead of struggling against it.  I will let you all know how things go this summer. – April 4, 2020