The Scenery Clinic: Pt. XIX: Winter ground cover with snow


Marble dust (top left) is very fine and makes good snow; it is inert and will not absorb moisture to cause a chemical reaction. The authors sprinkled it in shadow areas (top right) and on slopes using a paper cup (exercising restraint). After wetting the snow and gluing it in place with diluted white glue, small amounts of


marble dust at www.cccrow.com if it is not available locally.


I had no intention of covering large areas with snow. What I wanted was patches of snow, perhaps in areas that don’t get much direct sunlight, an effect I see here in the Northwest every year in late winter. I poured some marble dust into a paper cup, squeezed it a lit- tle to form a “V” as a spout, and gently poured the material onto selected areas. I then sprayed it with wet water and added diluted glue using an eyedropper. After the glue had saturated the dust, I picked up some brown pastel chalk on a brush and sprinkled it into the “snow” to


yield dirty snow that had been


around for a few weeks. I found that lightly spraying a little


water over the chalk helped to disperse it over the snow. The photos show a fin- ished area with dirty snow next to a parking lot, where we might expect to find it. I coated the pavement around the snow with clear fingernail polish to get the look of melting snow. The slope appears dark in the photo because it was still very wet after I glued the snow down.


80 JANUARY 2012


light brown chalk were brushed on some areas to simulate dirty snow (above left). A light spray of water allowed the chalk to bond with the snow and sink in. Clear nail polish was used with marble dust for slush on the pavement (above right). Some snow remains in the ravine, below, even though the sun is out.


Finally, we added debris in a field be- hind the gas station next to a drainage ditch. There’s a light skiff of snow on the bank of the ditch and note the muddy water near the culvert. I paint- ed the bottom of the ditch in front of the culvert with Floquil Roof Brown, then, after it dried, added gloss medi-


um over the paint. Scenic Express Prairie Tufts were used along the top of the ditch. We are glad to have you along for the


ride. Next month we will cover an easy way to make bare trees and describe some of the small but important de- tails we added to the scene.


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