The Moss Garden

The largest public moss garden in the United States, 40-plus species of mosses and lichens transform two acres into an ancient-feeling fairyland. Contrasting textures and shades of green drape like velvet across decaying tree stumps, punctuated by dark stems of huckleberry. Created in 1982 by planting 275,000 plugs of Irish moss (soon colonized by native mosses), the Japanese-inspired Moss Garden held a keen interest for Prentice Bloedel. He loved alder trees and when the forest and understory were reduced to create the garden, he left many alder stumps as habitat for birds and to create this truly unique landscape.