It has been a while, life has distracted me, but I've finally had another look at this setting, that I still find unsatisfactory
, and decided to make a change. Yes, I know, it's not the time of year in such a cold climate (-7.8 degrees C a week ago) for a "make over" but I was inspired to try something so I started anyway.
I had it in mind to remove the rock (nice rock but not the one for this setting), split the setting down the middle and swap the halves to turn a "hill" into a "vale". The idea had some potential, but "the Universe" had other ideas, so when I went to lift it out of the pot to split it the whole setting fell apart
- OK, looks like a total rebuild.
I arranged the trees in size groups, selected a new pot (shallow terracotta bowl Japanese pot, with three ornate feet, the same size as the original pot, and yes, Mark, round again). Next, the selection of rocks to make the "rim" of the vale (lucky I have a rock collection on the retaining wall outside the shade-house to supply plenty of options
). After considerable trial and error and trying some rocks with a view to doing some trees as "root-over-rock", I settled on four of the same local stone, with some quartz inclusions, that fitted tolerably well together and started reconstruction.
One larger "tree" was re-potted elsewhere to make a ROR later (I couldn't resist). The remaining largest tree was positioned to show off it's trunk and roots, using a major root as an "arch" over the path.
20230704_174509 Path Underpass.jpg
Another was positioned above, up the hill from the first tree and overhanging the rock rim, and the last one on the other side of the meadow in front of a rock on the other edge of the rim.
20230704_175027 Side Detail.jpg
The next size down were positioned randomly with most towards the top of the hills to give height to the forest. The "saplings" were grouped in 3's as little groves throughout the setting (one grove between the larger tree on the right side of the vale to blend the forest into the meadow and the smallest were used as fill in the forest with a couple on the lower edge of the rim.
20230704_200254 Detail.jpg
On my wander about down the paddock earlier, I'd found some suitable moss to help hold my "hills" together and some fruiting lichen(
) to add interest to the meadow so it was the next addition. Who needs jig-saws when you have moss to apply to a setting, trying to get the edges to match seamlessly while matching the various types of moss and lichen inclusions
.
20230704_114206 Meadow detail.jpg
As the light faded (early this time of year), I brought the whole project indoors (I use big, plastic trays from the $2 shops to hold the pot and resources when working on the kitchen table) continued with my moss jig-saw and laid my sand path. I'd misted the roots constantly and heavily misted the potting media as I built up my "hills", planted my trees and bedded in my moss.
20230704_175348 Path Detail.jpg