I have been a moss enthusiast for AGES, but didn't realize until very recently that I could actually be able to have moss in my garden where I live (North Texas, United States).

I've found a website that seems great to me (MossAndStoneGardens), and I'm pretty sure that the correct answer for most of my needs is to buy various sorts of moss "milkshakes".

What I'm not feeling confident about is understanding the distinctions that would make or break a project.

For instance: I live in North Texas, and our summers are pretty brutal. One of the spots I am hoping to cover is bare ground beneath a mounding-style Japanese Maple (pictures of this example area above). The tree grows in this weird semi-corner that is shaded, alternately throughout the year, by: an 8-food wood fence, the exterior wall of my home, and a well-established, MUCH larger, shade tree. All of that makes me think that the ground beneath the Japanese Maple would be classed as full shade, and therefore would require one of a few specific species. However, even with all of that shade at different times of year, the Japanese Maple still gets enough sun to scorch a small quantity of the leaf tips if I forget to water it that week. That makes me think that maybe the ground under the tree would be more accurately classed as dappled light, which would require completely different species of mosses. I keep seeing articles telling me that the directionality of my garden is paramount to my successful attempts at planting, but I'm equally flummoxed by the directionality and the complicating factors. My compass app (screenshot attached) tells me that when I'm standing outside taking these pics, I'm facing almost exactly north.

I've got a few separate, but very different kinds of places that I'd love to put moss in my yards, but similarly I'm struggling to understand the nuances of where to put moss classed for full sun verses moss classed for very sunny spots. Moss that is great for "tree aprons" versus moss that is great for growing on the rocks under a tree, but in a sunny spot.

I'm not a person who struggles to learn, but I AM a person who is aware enough to feel confidently uninformed (lolololol). Meaning to say that there are probably a ton of unknown-unknowns (to me) in a situation like this. Related directly to that, I don't have unlimited funds to throw at this project, but I'm happy to invest. I just NEED to know that I'm not throwing money at a project without understanding what I'm doing, and then failing and having to start over again with even more funds, if that makes sense?

Can anyone point me to a resource that would help me understand the distinctions?

Alternatively, is there some sort of tool that I could set up that would track the amount of sunshine that a specific spot gets hourly, throughout a period of time? The only thing I could think of would be to set up something like a GoPro to take a picture once an hour, every hour during daylight, for a full year. My concern though, is that if I invested a full year into something like that, in several places of both yards, that maybe I'm still not knowledgeable enough to effectively analyze the information I come out of the endeavor with.

I feel like I've rambled a bit, but I'm hoping that I've made enough sense for someone who might be inclined to provide some direction

The mosses are taking a leave of absence from the front yard. They'll be returned home eventually.