Sunset Garden - Week Two

Sunset Garden - Week Two

The garden is starting to look a little more like a garden now that the walls have been painted and a tree has even made it's way into the garden. Painting the walls was a long process . . . A word to the wise, don't try painting things in Tasmania in the middle of July. Why? Because it's cold and wet and it takes forever for each coat of paint to dry.

I started by sealing the dried clay with PVA glue mixed with water. The walls were then coated with successive layers of paint in shades of grey and brown. Some layers were applied as a wash (the paint watered down), some were sponged on and some were drybrushed on. I kept adding various paints in different ways until I had a wall that looked fairly convincing as stone. When I was happy with the walls (or was it when I was just simply sick of fiddling with them and decided they'd do?) they were given a coat of clear Matt sealer. Next, I started work on the ground. I wanted to raise the ground of the garden up off the MDF base so I could create a pond. Obviously, the pond needs to be lower than the ground or the water wouldn't sit in the pond, it would spread through the garden. The ground was raised by cutting a block of oasis foam into slices about a centimetre thick which were then laid over the base of the garden. I cut a channel for a stream and pond with a craft knife and added some contour to the ground by pressing gently on the foam. The foam was then drenched with a mix of water and PVA glue to help toughen it up and hold it in place. Over this I poured some watered down pollyfilla to smooth out some dips I didn't want in the ground and again to toughen the foam up. As oasis foam is designed to absorb and hold water (and as it is still cold, though slightly less wet) this is still drying out.