This is my first year with a Japanese Garden. It is a small courtyard style with lots of moss and peastone. I realize that falling leaves are a fact of life here - but I have a big silver birch growing in the middle which is shedding little catkin scales and tiny bits of bark and wood all over the stone and moss. This is impossible to rake up, so how do you deal with it? I tried using a vacuum, being careful not to suck up any moss with limited success. It looks like I will have to screen and wash the stone in the spring. Does any one use a leaf blower?

My second problem is that the critters all love this place which is fine becqause they are cute little buggers and part of nature, but now they are doing what comes natuarly at this time of the year - which is burying seeds for the winter which absolutely is causing havoc with the moss. They are tearing the bejezzis out of it and throwing dirt all over the place. The other critters are moles, which I never see, but they are tunneling under the fabric under the stone leaving these bubbles everywhere. Occassionally they will surface at the edges and leave a mess. Does anyone have any techniques for controling or repelling these guys? I will most likely wait until spring for major repair of the moss.

Thanks