Experimenting with the different types of snow for miniature gardening is fun – until you have to clean it up.
Miniature Gardening Lesson: Don’t Eat Yellow Snow
Different options from the top left, going clockwise: Iridescent Confetti Random Cut, Quilt Batting, Insta Snow to Go, Plastic Winter Snow. Click to enlarge.
My father used to say, “Don’t eat yellow snow.” when we did something wrong that was quite obvious that it was the wrong in the first place. He also preached, “Don’t eat the road apples.” and “Please don’t eat the daisies.” quoted from the book of the same name. (I wonder why all of these sayings were food related?)
So it was the first thing that came to mind when I did this little miniature gardening experiment with fake snow. I know,
Faking it with quilting batting kinda works if you “be the blizzard” and tuck a little here and there, creating mini snow drifts. But, hey, it can be cleaned up in minutes without harming the plants.
I know, some of you are up to your eyeballs in snow this year and here I am trying to fake it. But hey, that’s what makes horse races. (Another fatherly maxim. ;o)
We have been collected a few different kinds of artificial snow over the years to see what would look good and be safe for the plants in the miniature garden. We didn’t test them all to be honest – there’s something about sprinkling bits of non-biodegradable plastic on a living garden that I could not overcome. And, I imagined the little tiny bits of snow still there in the middle of summer, stuck in the soil glittering in the sunshine. So, when I found this Insta Snow to Go that was non-toxic and environmentally safe, it was worth a shot.
Insta Snow mixes quickly and easily.
Add some water to the Insta Snow to Go powder and it is an “eruption of fluffy snow.” It is a kind of polymer that absorbs the water, expands in size and kinda looks like snow. I mixed it on the dry side so I could sprinkle it on the garden in an attempt to make it look natural. And I did try sprinkling it dry and then spritz it with water that worked okay as well.
The Insta Snow was great for the first day, but then it started to absorb the water from the soil and discolored the snow. Ick. Ick and more ick. Perhaps if I kept it on the dry areas – but it’s a garden where water is not an optional component – so no, I’m not sold on this as a solution.
I mixed it to stay on the dry side to sprinkle it on the garden. Too much water makes the Insta Snow really mushy.
I sure wish life had an “Undo” button. Now, see the photos below on how to get it OUT of your garden!
There are other solutions for miniature snow that the dollhouse world and the model railroaders have come up with if you are working with dry environments. Some recommend white glue and cotton, others work as a plaster that you paint on. If you would like to go deeper, here is more insight into using miniature snow from our fellow-lover-of-everything-miniature, Lesley Shepard from the About.com Miniatures blog.
You can find most of the different kinds of snow mentioned here at your local craft store, or do a search on this here Interweb.
Otherwise, the snow that works best in the real living miniature garden is still real snow!
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Insta Snow turns brown and mushy when it in contact with the potting soil.
Because it’s so wet – and will stay wet, it will suffocate any plant material.
This mini garden is established so I knew I could tip it over and spray off the snow.
The spray bottle wasn’t working so I got the water can which really helped wash off the garden. But there’s still snow in the shrubbery that didn’t wash out! Ick.
