Fragrant after cutting and ticklish between the toes, lawns may be the quintessential symbol of suburban living.  The lawn is facing increasing competition from moss, however, due to the latter's relative sustainability, resilience, and easy maintenance requirements.

That lush green carpet we all know and love has serious environmental costs: NASA estimates that turf is the U.S.’s most irrigated crop, logging in at thirty two million acres, equivalent acreage to most of the states in the Northeast combined. As of 2006, the U.S. spent as much as three times more water and pesticides on lawn maintenance than on agriculture.

In addition to having monumental water use requirements, the harsh pesticides and herbicides necessary to keep lawns green and healthy normally runs off into local water supply, causing eutrophication in creeks, ponds and golf course lakes. Cutting lawns produces emissions from fossil fuels used in mowers, which is not balanced by the small amount of carbon absorbed by the lawn.

Enter moss, a healthful, sustainable alternative. Moss is a soft, low-growing plant that reproduces through offshoots and spores. Moss is available in a variety of colors and heights, and can grow without soil, on rocks, or in poor soil conditions. This is because moss lacks a deep root structure, instead ‘knitting’ itself onto the top layer of soil or substrate.

Heidi Masucci of Moss Acres, which was recently profiled by the New York Times, extolled the benefits of moss, saying that “Once moss is established, it generally needs less maintenance, little weeding and no mowing. It doesn’t need fertilizer and likes crappy soil with a low pH. Clay, sandy or rocky type soil is fine, because it gets its nutrition at top of the plant, from the air.” Masucci continued to explain that moss readily survives winter and drought conditions.

Like lawn, moss is easy to grow from transplanted sod. Moss also does particularly well as a green roofing material because it isn’t heavy and grows with so little soil. Green roofing, a trend becoming popular among US green builders, helps to keep buildings insulated and controls runoff.   

Moss grows best in indirect sunlight, flourishing on forest floors, so sunny yards may need to also plant trees to provide shade. Because the shallow moss roots hold onto particles of topsoil or rock, it can’t withstand high traffic like dogs or football games. So while lawns may always have their place, moss is one easy way to take the pain out of xeriscaping. Moss’s popularity is forecast to increase tremendously as fresh water becomes a scarcer commodity and global warming incites intense droughts like those seen in the southeast in 2007.