They filter a lot of toxins out of the environment. Where mosses are really useful in our modern society is, if you analyse the chemicals in them. He also spoke about the environmental benefits that can come with having a moss garden as opposed to a traditional lawn, from absorbing toxins in the environment to using significantly less water to maintain. Van Tonder has gone on to design moss gardens around the world and will be showcasing one of his indigenous South African moss gardens at the Tokara rare plant fair on Saturday. Gert van Tonder, internationally acclaimed moss garden designer and neuroscientist I specialise in the neuroscience of visual psychology and your visual system is working. I have taught courses in neuroscience in various countries in the world, but I always use Japanese gardening principles as some sort of a practical test bed for visual effects that affect your brain. He has since incorporated this technique of gardening into his teaching. Van Tonder fell in love with moss as a child and developed his craft while in Japan, where he lived and completed his PhD in neuroscience.

Moss gardening started in Japan as a way of managing soil erosion. Pippa Hudson speaks to Van Tonder about the benefits of moss gardening ( scroll up to listen).

While some might see moss in a garden as nuisance and even try to kill it, Gert van Tonder, a neuroscientist and internationally acclaimed moss garden designer, spends his time creating beautiful moss gardens with some of South Africa’s hundreds of indigenous species.

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