So begins another challenge. The garden needed to be laid out, and decisions be made about how this little garden would be used. I wanted to indicate a space for relaxing, flower and vegetable gardens, utility area, paths and peek a boo views through gates and walls.
A centre circle for a fountain feature perhaps? Path edges built with stucco covered cardboard, textured and painted. Underpaint is where the gravel will be glued. I have already increased the amount of gravel as I was a bit daunted by producing foliage for the larger areas.
Gravel coloured and glued to board.
The stone-look walls were built using blocks cut from 1/2"/15 mm. acoustic ceiling tiles. I did one large section cutting them with a mat knife which took a long time but failed to keep the edges straight. Very discouraging. Bruce thought we may be able to use the table saw to cut it. Success and it only took a few minutes.
I painted the blocks with colour appropriate latex paint then textured some of them with a wire brush and sealed them with acrylic matte paint. I was worried that the drywall mortar would get into the layers of paper.
Bruce mortared a section with drywall mortar but found some bricks were not stable. We needed to apply mortar or spacers to get some definition between each brick to show the mortar - otherwise they seemed too closely packed. I did consider rendering the bricks to give a finish similiar to the exerior of my mini house but wanted a different look for the walled courtyard. I'll save that technique for another time. Once the bricks were set with a combo of white glue/drywall mortar I scraped the mortar out in part to give more dimension to the stone-look slabs.
Gates looking satisfactorily rusty.
Birds-eye view of space taking shape.
Bruce, supportive husband and side-kick extraordinaire fabricated the two gates. He used solid brass wire stapled to a piece of plywood to hold the wire in place while he soldered them together. The centre is a decorative medallion. He painted and used fine sand to texture and give a rusted appearance to the gates.
Now I have come this far I had to play a little! Garden tools, pots, seed packets and row markers in a basket. Ball of string in a clay pot and window box for the window sill. Already the space seems smaller.
Cushions and tray by Elizabeth. Lucky me! You can visit her blog by clicking the link: www.studioeminiatures.blogspot.ca
Leather diary and lavender plant in thimble pot made by J. The steamer chair was a Christmas decoration from the Restoration Hardware store a few years ago.
Soon to follow - experiments in landscaping. Thank you for visiting.
Regards Janine
