lifestyle WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 3, 2016

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Photo provided by Dale Sievert shows moss growing in a pot in Sievert’s gar- This undated photo provided by Dale Sievert shows moss growing in a small Moss growing in the snow in Sievert’s garden in Waukesha County, Wisconsin. den in Waukesha County, Wisconsin. private garden in Japan. Moss can be a versatile and beautiful addition to any garden

Paul Moore, who owned a garden center remove weeds and grass, provide moisture in Tennessee for over 30 years, can’t and keep it clear of debris; don’t let leaves Jcount the number of times people asked and sticks pile up. You can also move it him how to kill moss. He and other experts, around to where you want it: Mosses don’t however, say moss deserves more respect, as grow from seed, but they do spread from any a versatile and beautiful addition to any gar- part of the plant. “They can grow from a leaf den. “It’s stunning in the winter when every- or a stem or rhizoid,” says Martin. “Just cut thing else is dormant and dull. It’s like a little them up or tear them up.” emerald island,” says Moore, who’s got an You can also buy moss to plant. Martin entire moss lawn. “It changes with atmos- sells many species online from her moss nurs- pheric conditions - it’s ever-changing.” And it ery. “I have mats that roll out like a green car- looks better than his grass lawn did in pet,” she says. “They’re great for people who Nashville’s hot dry summers, he says. don’t have patience.” Moss will go dormant if Moss provides a variety of shapes and tex- it’s not watered, but uses less water than tures, and can work in everything from a con- most other garden plants. Unlike them, it has tainer to a whole lawn, like Moore’s. “Mosses no roots. The root-like structures you see offer year-round green,” says Annie Martin, when you pull up a clump of moss are called author of “The Magical World of Moss rhizoids. “Their only purpose is to hold it to Gardening” (Timber Press, 2016). It thrives in a the surface,” says Martin. Since moss takes in surprising range of climates; she once har- water and nutrients through its leaves instead vested some moss off a hot tin roof in June of through roots, several light waterings are and found it to be a species that also grows in better than a long drench. This also means Antarctica. that planting is easy: You don’t need to dig Some lessons on how to garden with moss holes or improve soil. can be found in Japan, where it is more val- This undated photo provided by J Paul Moore shows part of his moss yard in Nashville, “You can use nutrient-poor soil where ued. Dale Sievert has created Japanese-style Tenn. nothing else will grow and do nothing to gardens at his home in Waukesha, Wisconsin, prep it in advance except clear the debris and for public gardens in Wisconsin and start small. One possibility: Instead of using what Moore did when he decided to give up away,” Martin says. Another advantage: Moss Chicago. But this type of formal garden with mulch, plant moss to cover the ground under trying to grow grass in an area where it doesn’t need fertilizer or pesticides. The same great expanses of moss wasn’t actually what a perennial that’s bare at the bottom and big- refused to thrive. Within two or three years, substances that keep moss from freezing in he found most interesting when he visited ger on top. Or start even smaller: in a flower- the moss had covered about 5,000 square winter also taste bad to insects. But to its Japan. Rather, it was how often moss was pot. Sievert has about 300 containers planted feet. “The first thing people ask is, can you fans, moss’ best feature is its unique charm. used in private gardens along city streets, in with moss, where they thrive even in the walk on it? What does it feel like on your bare “When you talk about moss to anybody, they front of businesses and homes - just a couple Wisconsin winter. feet?” he says. “I say, ‘Take your shoes off!’” smile. It’s like the plant equivalent of a teddy square feet in a planter, or the space between Although heavy traffic will wear it down, and bear,” says Moore. “It conjures up elves in the This undated photo provided by Dale Sievert shows moss a sidewalk and a building. ‘Take your shoes off’ you wouldn’t want kids or dogs roughhous- forest.” — AP growing in a small private garden, on rock below tree, in “That’s how they garden with moss, in Another way to start is to encourage moss ing on it, moss actually likes to be walked on. Japan. — AP photos these little tiny spots,” he says. So, he says, where it’s already growing in your yard. That’s If you want to encourage moss to spread,

Kanye West hints at possible collaboration with Drake anye West has teased the possibility of collaborating on an album with Drake. The hip-hop superstars Kappeared together during a performance at OVO Fest in Drake’s native Toronto on Monday. At one point dur- ing the show, video shows West asking the crowd if they were “ready for this album” before pointing toward Drake as he entered the stage. Both Drake and West have mentioned the possibility of working with one another previously. The rappers also appeared together during a concert in West’s hometown of Chicago last week. — AP Kanye West and Drake

This file photo taken on April 27, 2009 shows actor arriving with his son Kesha drops sex abuse lawsuit Cameron Douglas for the world premiere of ‘Ghosts of Girlfriends Past’ at the Grauman’s Chinese Theater in Hollywood, California. — AFP against Dr Luke to focus on music Michael Douglas’s son op star Kesha has dropped her sexual judge of Kesha’s bid to extricate herself from abuse lawsuit in California against record her recording contract sparked an emotional Pproducer Dr Luke, saying she wants to #FreeKesha campaign on social media that leaves prison after 7 years focus on getting back to her music. The “Tik earned support from leading stars such as Tok” singer, who has not released an album for Taylor Swift, Adele and Lady Gaga. Kesha is he eldest son of actor Michael Douglas to prison, according to the ’s four years, will continue her fight in the New appealing the New York ruling and in April she has been released from prison after gossip section “Page Six.” York courts to get out of a multi-album record- released her first single in three years. Last Tserving seven years for drug trafficking, The Oscar-winning actor visited his son in ing deal with Sony Music and Dr Luke, her week, she started a US tour. and is now in a halfway house in New York, US prison regularly. He criticized the US penal attorney, Daniel Petrocelli, said in a statement. On Monday she thanked fans for their sup- media reported on Monday. Cameron system when accepting an Emmy Award for “Kesha has dismissed her California action port. “My fight continues. I need to get my Douglas, 37, was sentenced in 2010 to five playing the role of the pianist Liberace in the without prejudice while she pursues her music out,” she wrote on her Instagram years in prison for possession and sale of TV movie “Behind the Candelabra” in 2013. “At appeal and other legal claims in the New York account. “I have so much to say. This lawsuit is methamphetamine. His sentence was extend- first I was certainly disappointed with my son, courts,” he said. “Kesha is focused on getting so heavy on my once free spirit, and I can only ed by two years in solitary confinement after but I’ve reached a point now where I’m dis- back to work and has delivered 28 new songs pray to one day feel that happiness again.” Dr he admitted smuggling drugs into the appointed with the system,” he said. “If you to the record label.” Luke’s attorney, Christine Lepera, said in a prison. Cameron, Michael Douglas’s son with happen to have a slip, they punish you. In my The 29-year old singer filed a lawsuit in statement the accusations against him were his first wife Diandra Luker, was originally set son’s case, he has spent almost two years in California in 2014 accusing Dr Luke, one of the “false and meritless” and that Kesha’s decision to be released in 2018 but is currently living solitary confinement.” The actor’s representa- music industry’s most successful producers, of to dismiss the sex abuse claims in California at a rehabilitation center in New York, EOnline tives did not immediately respond to a rape and emotional abuse during the early came “because she has no chance of winning and ABC News reported. Cameron Douglas request for comment from AFP. — AFP stages of her career. Dr Luke, whose real name them.” — now plans to write a tell-all book describing is Lukasz Gottwald, has repeatedly denied the his life as heir to one of the most respected claims and has countersued for defamation. In this file photo, Kesha appears on stage at the Billboard Hollywood dynasties and how drugs led him But the denial earlier this year by a New York Music Awards in Las Vegas. — AP Winfrey picks Whitehead novel for book club

prah Winfrey has a new book club pick, Colson “The Underground Railroad” was scheduled to come out in such as “The Intuitionist” and “John Henry Days,” and a finalist swore out loud - while on a plane - when he learned his book Whitehead’s “The Underground Railroad,” a historical novel September, but after learning of Winfrey’s decision, Doubleday for the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Critics Circle had joined Winfrey’s pantheon of favorites. “I was in high school Othat imagines the network of safe houses and passages moved up the release date to Tuesday and more than doubled award. In “The Underground Railroad,” his sixth novel, he when her show became national,” he said. “She was an ambassa- that helped slaves escape to free territory is an actual train. the announced first printing, from 75,000 to 200,000. An interview imagines that the network of safe houses and passages that dor from black America and, obviously, a huge presence.” Winfrey told The during a recent telephone inter- with Whitehead appears in the September issue of Winfrey’s mag- enabled slaves to reach free territory is an actual train. The Winfrey started her club in 1996 with Jacquelyn Mitchard’s “The view that she knew from the first sentence that she would want to azine, “O,” which comes out next week. Winfrey’s website, book was already highly anticipated, with the trade publica- Deep End of the Ocean,” and laughs as she recalls her early share her passion with her audience, an impulse she has relied on Oprah.com, will include a reading guide and Winfrey’s comments, tion Kirkus Reviews calling it “startlingly original” and praising doubts that you could use a television show to talk about a nov- with uncommon success for 20 years. “I was blown away by it,” and “Underground Railroad” will be featured on the social media Whitehead for examining “race mythology and history with el. Her choices would sell hundreds of thousands of copies, and Winfrey said. “‘Blown away’ is an often-used expression, but with site Goodreads (Goodreads.com/OprahsBookClub). rousing audacity and razor-sharp ingenuity.” Winfrey said the sometimes millions, but Winfrey originally saw the club as an this book it was to the point of sometimes putting it down and novel was so vivid she double-checked her history books to extension of what she did in person, when she handed out saying, ‘I can’t read anymore. I don’t want to turn the page. I want National Book Critics Circle award make sure the rail system didn’t exist. copies of Alice Walker’s “The Color Purple” to passers-by near to know what happens, but I don’t want to know what happens.’” Whitehead, 46, is the author of highly regarded novels During a recent telephone interview, Whitehead said that he where her program was taped in Chicago.—AP