I have never actually attempted the blender/buttermilk method, but I have made a few unsuccessful attempts with yoghurt and crushed moss. I find transplanting sheets of moss much more successful.

You are right. I used to have a copy of George Schenks's moss book, and recall that he stated that only certain mosses could be propagated by that method.

I started a moss garden in a soggy/acidic area of my garden just this winter, and it's already looking happy and green. I gathered mosses from my neighborhood on my walks and transplanted them into my garden. Below is my moss garden about a month ago. It's greened up and established even more since I took that picture.

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I'm wondering, if your area dries up so quickly, that maybe you could cover it. When the sun started beating down on my moss garden, I bought a roll of window screening (the black vinyl version) and laid it over my moss. It not only diffused the sunlight, but I noticed that when it got windy, it seemed to hold in the moisture nicely. I pulled it back yesterday to check on my babies, and found that my moss was a brilliant happy green. I wouldn't lay a sheet of plastic over the moss mixture, though. I once tried that with some crushed moss and yoghurt, and wound up with a gooey moldy mess.

In my opinion, I wouldn't give up completely, but would try laying some sheets of moss in the same area and coaxing them to establish themselves.

Hope this helps

Here is a link that might be useful: Deborah's Garden

Thanks for the info and the link! If I can figure out exactly where & what to buy for the window screening, I might try that. I do have everything in the shade, and in a fairly shielded location from wind. Does the screen really hold moisture in?

Part of the problem might actually be that one of the items I'm trying to get moss to grow on is hard plastic. I think it's doing a tad better on the wood and rock I put it on. I also wonder if I should've put a layer of dirt/mud on the items before I smothered the moss mixture on them.

The screen might help though and even if it doesn't, it would sure help against those squirrels! I just transplanted some nice mosses to put around the base of one of my oak trees and the next day I went out and found multiple holes in the ground and some of my new mosses were completely moved. Oi!

I don't think moss will grow on hard plastic--too slick and doesn't retain moisture. Some mosses prefer growing on dirt, and don't want to grow on rocks or wood. There is a poster here who knows a lot more about mosses than I do. Hopefully, you can get his attention. Perhaps if you take pictures of the moss you are trying to propagate, someone will know what they are and what they want. Ã rule of thumb is that whatever you find the moss growing on, grow it on that in your garden.

The screen I use is the stuff people use for window screens. They sell it by the roll at Lowe's. A small roll is around five bucks.

I have problems with critters digging up my mosses, and the screen does seem to help for that.

Moss wants three things: shade, moisture, and acidic soil (or surface)