I have used the following mixture with some success. Equal portions of three ingredients, red clay (we have a lot of it in MD, spagnum moss cut into 2-3 inch lengths, and garden or potting soil. Mix it all together to form balls that do not crumble. I let it set for a few days to allow the moss to absorb as much moisture as possible. When doing a planting on a large slab, I sometimes imbed a narrow piece of wire lath rolled into a sausage like shape to imbed in the dam. Seems to keep the whole dam together.

Greetings amaranthena, Sorry not to get back to you sooner but I've been pretty tied up and this kind of project takes real thought and alot of browsing for what would be the ideal plants. I have done some looking at some very overpriced plants at a New Jersey nursery/landscape business and I do hope that is not the norm for your area! The triangle area is in the 10 to 11 area say to the fence post there in the middle. The junipers would flow (think like an arching brush stroke from just behind the daylilies in the triangle then to the edge of the core 3 and wrapping around towards the opposite fence where it runs into a species magnolia (which would have to be shaped to fit) which could be planted just towards the fence side of the dead tree. I have thought of something called New Jersey Tea which i believe is a ceanothus plant but I have not had time to check it out. But this is a low grower-imagine plants hanging over the rocks on a Maine coast! I would use these or something yet to be discovered between the junipers and the fence from point 1 to point 2. Rose of sharon is a great plant. I had a single flowered one at my moms. It is a very versatile plant and you could either use it as an accent in which case I would suggest the point 5 site or buy several others and plant them as a hedge say on the outside of the fence from point 2 towards the house. They would require pruning but hold their shape well and should be quite a show! I think that is all I can do at the moment. I may not be able to get back until next week as I have lots of work to do. By the way my reference was in regards to the Arnold Schwarkenegger (don't ask me how to spell this one and he is my governor!!) quote: "I'll be back" in the first Terminator movie!!! Cheers.

I am heart broken about the info you posted about moss truning brown from too much minerals.....as that is what has happened to me......I thought it was just the summer time heat as the moss will dry up and almost look dead until the cool damp weather returns, and I couldn't figure out why it was taking so long for my moss to green back up like it was in the spring time... I never thought of it being the minerals building up, and eventually killing the moss. I invested so much time and effort into all of my miniature moss landscpaes, and 75% of all my moss has turned a gold brown, and with the cold damp fall weather now upon us here in the north east U.S., my moss have all failed to return to their brilliant lush green color like they do after a hot dry summer. After reading so much, and going online to find as much info as possible, your mentioning of the moss being sensitive to minerals is the 1st time I've heard of the problem, but it all makes sense now. I stopped using distilled water over the summer, and started watering with the 0.69 gallon spring water because it was 0.31¢ cheaper than $1.00 per gallon of distilled water. I'm now paying for it with dead "mineral overdosed" golden brown moss on these beautiful miniature rock landscaped I created last year. There is no way I could use my tap water from the faucet because of the chlorine that the town has loaded it with. Chlorine and moss won't work well together. It's time for me to start over.... it shoudn't take too much effort replacing all of my miniature moss I have growing around my lava rock landscapes afixed to my flat slabs of slate. I use a special combination of muck soil to keep the moss attatched to the rocks... I have a wild source of moss growing on my family's land, on a GIANT 100+ year old stone wall, and I never take more than I need, and leave PLENTY of moss behind so the moss can re-juvenate for the next year. The last thing I want too do is a clear-cut of moss. The type moss I use that grows on this old OLD 10 foot tall stone wall grows in tiny clumps, real compact miniature growth, and the wall I gather it from in the wild gets about 20% indirect sunlight each day. If I can, I'll post some pictures of the before and after - that is pictures of the dead moss that overdosed on water minerals, compared to the moss I am going to replace it with, that is once it gets established. I find my moss grows BEST in the winter time, as it may go below zero degrees F (not C) at night in the winter, but in the day where I keep my moss on my balcony, the temp rises to about 35 degrees to 45 from the radiational heat off of the brick building I live in. I also cover all of my moss with ANY snow that is around, as it greens up my moss like no other. Snow has always been the best method of keeping my moss green and alive all winter. Well, no more spring water for my future moss. I should have known about the mineral over-dosing. For now on, I am only going to use distilled water, rain water, and snow.

Update June 25, 2018 ... 11 months later :) I didn’t cover it to overwinter. I lost 3 Semps to diggers/chompers. I suspect jackrabbits as there is quite a bit of rabbit poop in there. I just split off a couple larger clumps and filled in the holes. I lost some of the sedums as well but what survived is filling in very nicely!!! you can see on the left where I quit filling last year - I’ll get more plants this year and continue around the bottom, fanning out wide to spill into the existing bed. I laid a big E. PVN stump with lots of air roots in there as an experiment and it’s grown a wee pup :) One semp about to bloom: Many different sedums :) only the tricolour hasn’t taken off very well. I can only find wee sprigs here and there. Whatever that big clump at top left is, it has done very well! This section has filled in wonderfully