acer: If it's not too much work, I would clip them. The plants don't need them, and getting rid of them just might stimulate more later blooming, which is your best hope now. Don Yellman, Great Falls, VA

More than likely what comes off that tree is Lichens and not moss, although both are first stage plants Ma Nature grows to add organic matter to soil so higher order plants can grow in that soil. Lichens grow on trees where dust from the air accumulates in the bark and traps just enough moisture for those plants to grow. What is knocked off by the birds can be left where it falls, mixed into the soil, or picked up and composted.

I'm not sure what you mean by a gravel bed? I've heard terms like rain or bog garden as well as swell for drainage problems. I've read suggestions to dig down, make a pebble pool or line with a pond liner & add soil back for moisture loving plants. I just didn't have the heart to collect more water there, so did something different for our a similar drainage problem where grass would just rot in winter & die off despite additions of compost, aeration, etc. Did you plant moisture loving or bog plants in the poor drainage area? Hosta and astilbe can take full sun if moist here in the NW. Many plants we consider shade plants are shade tolerant and would do fine in sun if moist. Dogwood might also help. Might also need to add more compost and organic matter so you have loam instead with sand added as well to give space in those soil particles. I just picked up 28 bags of sand from Craigslist for amending my lasagna soil for a new herb bed. I am tired already & haven't unloaded the Suburban. I've posted a want herbs -trade garden supplies on the PNW Plant Exchange site if you have herbs & want some of what I have to offer. Back to what we did for the beds in the low area...We've created a gravel path & mounded up lasagna style soil on both sides of it. In two spots we dug dry wells, so that the rain would fill them instead our driveway & lawn. We think we need to dig some in the gravel driveway as well to contain the flow from the top of the road as our place is low & the rest is higher. Problem of water only during rain storms now, so we've made progress. The water has to go somewhere and surface of gravel is hard pan, not loose gravel anymore. Plantings are doing just fine and don't appear to be rotting in wet soil, though the combination of our clay + amendments is keeping the soil moist when I dig down to make a planting hole. One other thing we've not done is divert the downspout flow to the dry well or to another area of that garden. Let me know if you need pics. I've not yet taken any. Does that help? Corrine

melvalena- Raleigh isn't good one. Why did your installer go with Raleigh instead of Palmetto? Raleigh has horrible problem with fungal problem unfortunately. Palmetto would have been a winner if it had any resistance to SADV. Mine got hit with SADV. Fortunately, I ended up experimenting with Sapphire (now unavailable in Texas for some reason) and SADV has no effect on Sapphire so it's filling in where Palmetto died off. You're right that zoysia looks a lot better than bermuda... I would have gone with Palisades. Still, they would invade plant beds like bermuda but at much slower pace...