Garden Items Seem to Appeal to Me

While whiling away a coffee break recently, I came across a small scene that really appealed to me. As I have a number of garden-y items sitting around that would work well in such a scene, I gave myself permission to start on it. 

The idea came from a photo labelled "Garten Ecke", and in checking it out further, I discovered there was a tutorial for it, in German, which I can follow with the odd reference to a dictionary. The designer has a blog, https://www.lilliput-homes.de if you would like to check this out. However, as this has not become a blue address, you will have to input it -sigh!

I began on the base over the weekend, which mimics a cobblestone courtyard corner. There will be a distressed/painted back wall, and a fence on the right side. The footprint of this project is 20 x 15 cm for the base (8 x 6"), so it quite small. The cobbles were made with egg carton bits, 5/16" square, roughly (about 8 mm square), with a double cobble border and a concentric but offset centre. This is pretty much what the original designer has done. I will also copy the back wall, but intend to modify the fence, as I want to use skinny wooden coffee stir sticks to make that. The original is all foam core.

Two possible candidates for this garden corner are the potting bench and the trellis planter I made during the early months of Covid. My hope is that the colour scheme will be gray and white, with pink, blue and mauve accents in the flowers and accessories. I am very eager to try another German tutorial, for Sweet William (Dianthus) flowers, which would work in terms of the colour scheme. Over the back wall, I'd like to drape a flowering vine of some sort; it's a toss-up right now with clematis somewhat ahead of climbing roses. And of course, my favourite apple green will make appearances, in moss between some of the cobbles, and in at least one or two accessories.

As I like to put mammalian life in my scenes, this one might get a lazy cat....

By the way, the Mestreechter dialect I spoke as a child in The Netherlands called cobblestones "kinder kopjes", which translates to "children's heads". I hope that refers to the size of the cobbles....

And, get ready, I will try to sell the finished product rather than keep it for myself, as I am trying (and failing, sadly!) to down-size. Now I really have to hope that there will be another miniature show!