Home alone today, so I decided to take a stab at an old Japanese garden technique called Kokedama, or moss ball garden.
Not having the traditional Japanese soils of Keto tsuchi, Akadama, and sand for this, I made up my own soil mix of 2-parts Pro-mix, 1-part used ADA Aquasoil, 1 part garden soil, as the Keto tsuchi substitute (think of a Michigan peat-loam) and 1/2-part Flourite (for the Akadama, a naturally occurring calcined clay). Mix the ingredients together and then add water until you get a firm mud ball. The ball should be roughly the size of a baseball, although my first one is somewhere between a baseball and a softball.
While the technique traditionally uses terrestrial plants like Japanese Maple seedlings, ferns, and such, I decided to use some spare aquatics trimmings for the plants; 3 stems emersed Hygrophila lancea, 3 stems emersed Rotala rotundifolia, 3 stems Rotala sp. 'Bangladesh', several clumps of Untricularia graminifolia, and wrapped the entire ball in Taxiphyllum barbieri ("Vesicularia dubyana"). Simply stick the cuttings into the ball with tweezers and then wrap the entire ball with the moss of your choice.
The plants aren't at their best as they started to wilt whilst I took pictures.
My next one will be a little drier with terrestrials, using Asparagus plumosus and Thuidium delicatulum.
Cheers.
Jim
