As people have been spending more time at home the last couple of years, we’re focusing on making our homes a sanctuary. Bringing nature indoors has been particularly popular as of late as people want the soothing sights of nature to adorn their homes.

Because of this, indoor moss walls have become trendy again. What’s more soothing than green walls in your home? Indoor living walls create a vertical garden that's absorbing all that carbon dioxide. Some of the stunning moss wall ideas out there are truly breathtaking and really embody the moss art movement. 

When it comes to green walls inside your home, you're most likely getting a preserved reindeer moss wall since preserved moss is virtually maintenance-free. In fact, finding someone to install a living moss wall inside your home might be harder than all the maintenance a living moss wall requires. 

Talking about maintenance, read on for a step-by-step tutorial on how to maintain a gorgeous moss wall for the next 25 years.

Materials Needed

  • Water
  • Fertilizer
  • Natural light
  • Moss wall kit (aka sheet moss)
  • Pruning shears

Step One: Placement

White Wall and Floor

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The first maintenance task comes before you install your moss wall. You don’t want your moss wall to be in too much direct sunlight. Even though moss is very hardy, too much direct sunlight will turn your moss brown and eventually kill it. Since you don't have too much control over how much sun your indoor walls receive, make sure you put your living moss wall where it doesn't receive too much direct sunlight.

However, moss still needs some light to photosynthesize and stay green. So make sure there is some ambient light reaching your entire wall. At the very least, install some artificial grow lights to keep your moss alive. Different type of moss have different light needs, so take that into account too.

Step Two: Water

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All living things need water, moss included. The cool thing about moss is that if the level of humidity is correct, moss will survive with just the ambient moisture in the air, so no watering is required.

If your climate is not humid, however, watering is required to keep your plants alive. The best way to do this is to mist the surface of the moss wall regularly. Depending on the size of the wall, this could be quite a big job, so mix it into your regular chore list.

Make sure any furniture, decor, or finishings that could be ruined by mist is covered with a waterproof membrane of some sort.

Another alternative is a humidifier in the room with the moss wall. The great thing about this is that you can set your humidifier to maintain relative humidity inside that room. The correct humidity will depend on the species of moss you have.

If you've installed a moss wall kit, a watering solution should be built into the kit. Follow the manufacturers' instructions.

Step Three: Fertilize

fertilizer

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When it comes to fertilizing moss, things can get a little tricky. Moss is a hardy plant and doesn't need much to thrive. In this vein, too much nutrient-heavy fertilizer on your moss wall may end up killing the moss, not something you want.

On the other hand, it does need some nutrients to keep growing. My recommendation is to find a natural source of nitrogen or even an organic fertilizer. Look at the required rate of feeding on the bottle. Halve it. Feed that amount of fertilizer to your moss wall during the next watering and watch how it responds.

Despite growing pretty slowly, plants respond to external influences quite quickly. Within a few days, you should be able to tell if your moss enjoyed the fertilizer or if it was too heavy. If there's no discernible difference, up the dosage next time.

Keep following this schedule until you notice the first signs of overfeeding. At this point, scale back your feeding a little bit and go from there.

Step Four: Prune

green moss texture background

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Since a living moss wall is growing, you're going to need to trim it regularly to keep it in check. When this has to happen is up to you.

Grab your pruning shears and prune back any growth you don't want. You'll probably have to move your furniture and spread something over the floor for easy clean-up.

That’s All

Keeping a moss wall alive in your home takes some work. It's about as much work as any houseplant, with some variations for the specific species of plant and their arrangement.

However, if you regularly keep up with this maintenance, you'll have a beautiful living moss wall that can survive for 25 years or more.