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. Pippa Hudson speaks to Gert van Tonder, a South African born and internationally acclaimed moss garden designer and a neuroscientist.

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