Zen garden plans in miniature

First an observation:  Men build miniature scenes and women build miniature houses

When I made the Teahouse and googled about how to make a house and furniture and stuff in miniature I did not bump into a single instruction made by a man. But now when I googled how to make trees and bushes and grass I have not bumped into a single instruction made by a woman. I assume there most likely is some instruction made by a man about miniature houses and there must be an instruction made by a woman about trees, but they certainly are in the minority. I find this quite funny, both enjoy working in miniature scale, doing things that require meticulous work, but yet stick to their own areas so strictly.

So as said I've been googling about how to make miniature trees and bushes, also I visited a crafts store and sneaked in the railway hobbyist aisle to get some materials. The grass, leaf and turf material looks like some type of green sponge that someone has cut into tiny tiny pieces. I'm quite amazed I actually decided to buy them. Almost 5 euro a packet, to get... well... trash. I did think of cutting up some green yarn, but it would be a big job, so I bought the stuff.

I have spent quite amount of time thinking of the size of the zen garden I will make. I was thinking of getting some sort of tray where to create the scene. I want to keep the miniature garden next to the Teahouse I built which means that the garden would be placed on the table. In theory that would be good but how on earth can I dust a miniature zen garden, because I know dust will land on it and then it will look just horrible. I thought of building a sort of aquarium on top of the garden. But on one of my trips to a thrift store I found a clock (similar to this but way cheaper) that I knew I could use as a base for the zen garden.

I disassembled the clock and painted the base white. It is way smaller than what I had planned originally and I hope I can fit all the things I want to it. Anyway now I finally(!) have good plan for the Undersized Urbanite Dollhouse contest. And I just realized I have about two weeks to finish this, oh ou...

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