This
week we are going to be adding the “soil” to the planting areas
as well as the “grass” to the lawn.
For
the soil I went to my standby- coffee grounds. I love the ease of
using them, there are always more on hand (at my house at least) and
since they would normally either end up in the garbage or the compost
they are a free material. They also look great when glued down on our
mini projects. If you would like to learn more about the process of
using the coffee grounds here is a link to a video I made a while
back explaining the process.
For
the grass in my lawn this time I decided to try something new, at
least new to me. I found a really cool sheet of moss in the floral
department of the craft store. I picked the smallest package, the
sheet of moss was about the same size as a sheet of normal paper. I
really like the more natural feel and look of the moss. This was
absolutely the first time I have used a sheet of moss in this way so
I have no idea how it will hold up long term but I am in love with it
right now. 
The
biggest thing I learned was to work with as large a piece as you can
for any given area and to make sure to pick off the extra layers in
the thickest spots.
Because
the moss is natural and it has various thicknesses throughout the
sheet it automatically makes for a more rolling surface. One of the
things I hate about a lot of mini landscaping is that the surfaces
are too often perfectly flat. The real world is not perfectly flat it
rolls up and down and has holes in it. The moss that I added adds to
the realism a bit in that respect. It also has areas that look more
green and some that are brown and look dead, again a bit more
realistic.
The
biggest drawback I think is the mess that the product creates, it is
really messy. I really wish I had worked on this outside, it would
have made cleanup a lot easier.
If
you don't want to use the moss and would like to use my method of
adding the lawn with a terry cloth towel here is a link to video
where I show you how to do that. (it is toward the end of the video)
So
that is where we will leave the project for this week. I hope you are
enjoying the process and picking up a few tips along the way.
As
always thank so much for watching my videos and reading the blog.
Thank you for your videos. Don't know if you've mentioned it in earlier projects but you can also use dried used t leaves for your dirt. When added here and there with the coffee grounds it makes a variation in dirt color. I figure you know this already but we don't drink coffee, just tea. Ha. I do like the mossy grass too.
ReplyDeleteI use tea leaves more when I want it to look like bark dust around the planters. I don't drink much tea so I don't have a ready supply though so I don't use them often and have to plan ahead.
ReplyDelete