Miniature bush shrub

The Timber Cabin needed some landscaping so I made three bushes and filled the patio garden beds with some flowers. After watching some YouTube videos on landscaping diorama’s I came up with a method that would work for what I needed as far as bushes.

Sometimes with projects you have to be patient for everything to naturally fall into place. While pondering what I would use for the bush skeletons, I found myself pruning the heather in my garden and saw the perfect solution in the debris pile. 

I had been talking to Jeff Winkle, who just finished a year long workshop of landscaping in American Miniaturist, and he shared that using things from nature for the base of trees and shrubs would always look more natural than manmade frames.

Jeff has so much knowledge from endless experimentation with many different mediums and techniques. He even sent me a fabulous sample gift box full of all sorts of materials he has created over the years! 

First, I stripped the needles off of the heather cuttings because they will fall off easily over time so you should not expect them to be part of the bushes framework. Then I used pruners and shaped the bush to my liking.

Jeff had sent me some Poly-fil that was brown and green. This was great because I has planned to spray paint some to use for this, but now it was already finished! If you need to make some, just pull it apart so it is thin and flat and spray it with green or brown spray paint. Mist it and don’t let it clump. It must be completely dry before you use it. Wear gloves when handling.

I pulled and stretched it over certain large branches to simulate smaller sections of branches. I could have applied it in smaller batches. Always do a test first.

I leaned out my window and sprayed it with Elmer’s glue spray and then sprinkled a mix of diorama ground cover all over it. Mix your colors to add realism and depth. Let it dry for a half hour or so. 

I went in with scissors and snipped away some strings and opened up some areas that were clumping. Then added more Poly-fil and repeated. After it dried overnight, I sprayed it again with Elmer’s spray to set. I tried hair spray but it didn’t hold.

They look pretty good. The main focus needs to be the house and these are quiet enough to blend in. Still need to add two more on either side of the steps but I want to try a different method for those.

I decided to keep the landscape simple so if the future owner of this house wants to add their own touches they can make a big garden ad add some trees too!