We made this for the Seattle Miniature Show in 2006 and it won Best of Show. The box we made for it is 3′ by 2′ by 1′ deep.
Photo Essay: Miniature Garden Houseboat
From the archives, this miniature garden with a houseboat won Best of Show at the Seattle Miniature Show in 2006. First blogged about in 2012, updated June, 2018.
~~~
If you’ve been following my blog, this series is part of the photo archives that got crunched in my old computer. The picture files are too small to be included in my upcoming book from Timber Press, but I can share them with you now!
That row of miniature spruces in the very-back were staged for the photo – they were not part of the miniature garden.
Medium size or half-inch scale. It would be too big to move if we did it in one-inch scale. The house is 10 inches wide.
It was my very first handmade miniature house. There were several “flaws” throughout the house and furniture – and a lot of more-experienced miniaturists at the show thought we didn’t deserve the Best of Show ribbon. It wasn’t a warm and fuzzy feeling for us newbies! But it’s the customers that come to the show that decide who wins – not them.
It was fun to create ‘in the round’ – meaning it didn’t really have a back nor a front to the display. It gave us lots of nooks and crannies to work with.
Blending the two hobbies, gardening and miniatures, add a completely fun level to playing. It’s all small, nothing takes very long to make, so it’s really satisfying and rewarding.
We wanted to do something quintessentially Seattle. Steve, being the native Seattle-ite came up with the idea. He worked on the pontoon-logs and the deck, while I worked on the house and garden.
We made the docks and the ramps. We found the canoe and a lot of the props at our local dollhouse miniature store, Dolly’s Dollhouse, which is now closed.
The patio was “installed” using our Mini Patio Mix Kit with broken pieces of marble tile found at Bedrock Industries, downtown Seattle.
The trees and plants were from our Miniature Garden Center store, TwoGreenThumbs.com.
Miniaturists always use resin-water in their dollhouse scenes. We used real water – never thought to do it any other way. I had several people come up to me and ask me how I poured the resin-water so deep and so clear. Others would quickly dip their finger in the water to see if it was real. They weren’t supposed to touch it. Lol!
Adding the little details is just putting icing on the cake – in a very fun way, I might add… :o)
Cute huh? But can you figure out what is wrong with this? It’s a birdhouse, a bird feeder and a wind chime all in one. It is very sweet but, if you think about it, it’s just not realistic. The birds wouldn’t know what to do with it – if they ever get past the chimes they would probably feed, but I’m sure they wouldn’t nest in front of food. ;o)
We didn’t keep the houseboat outside, it wasn’t built to be weatherproof.
My very first miniature house! I’ll have to make another one day now that I have more experience. A very kind miniaturist was gracious enough to sit down with me after the show to go over why we got so much flak that we did from the “established” miniaturists. (!) She gave me some terrific insight into “seeing” in miniature. Thanks again Mary Beth!
Bird’s eye view. We still have the container growing, 12 years later!
About two weeks after the show, the raccoons sniffed out the water and played Godzilla one night. The water flooded into the bank and soaked the plants, I had to begrudgingly take it apart to save everything. I’m glad I took a bunch of pictures though. Remember to document your miniature gardens!
Like this? Then you’ll love my Gardening in Miniature book from Timber Press, due out in spring of 2013. Oh, and my second one, FULL of projects, Gardening in Miniature Prop Shop is now out too. They are here!
Join us for more miniature garden fun and adventures here. Sign up for your FREE Mini Garden Gazette newsletter delivered to your inbox almost every week. Subscribers get first dibs and exclusive discounts that are not advertised anywhere else.
Find your miniature garden trees, plants, realistic accessories and authentic patio materials – and much more here in our store.
One of our many awards that we’ve won along our journey to spread the joy of Gardening in Miniature!
I love that idea! And yeah, raccoons have ramsacked our gnome pond too and stolen the rubber ducky that was swimming there for a weekend. So if anybody sees a raccoon with a rubber ducky–it’s mine! :)
What an inspiring creation your Miniature Garden Houseboat is! You really have a supreme sense of balance, contrast, texture and depth to mold an uncanny realism whilst retaining the naturalness and a coherent theme. Bravo!
ID used to identify users for 24 hours after last activity
24 hours
_gat
Used to monitor number of Google Analytics server requests when using Google Tag Manager
1 minute
_ga_
ID used to identify users
2 years
_ga
ID used to identify users
2 years
_gali
Used by Google Analytics to determine which links on a page are being clicked
30 seconds
__utmx
Used to determine whether a user is included in an A / B or Multivariate test.
18 months
__utmz
Contains information about the traffic source or campaign that directed user to the website. The cookie is set when the GA.js javascript is loaded and updated when data is sent to the Google Anaytics server
6 months after last activity
__utmv
Contains custom information set by the web developer via the _setCustomVar method in Google Analytics. This cookie is updated every time new data is sent to the Google Analytics server.
2 years after last activity
__utmb
Used to distinguish new sessions and visits. This cookie is set when the GA.js javascript library is loaded and there is no existing __utmb cookie. The cookie is updated every time data is sent to the Google Analytics server.
30 minutes after last activity
__utmc
Used only with old Urchin versions of Google Analytics and not with GA.js. Was used to distinguish between new sessions and visits at the end of a session.
End of session (browser)
__utmt
Used to monitor number of Google Analytics server requests
10 minutes
_gac_
Contains information related to marketing campaigns of the user. These are shared with Google AdWords / Google Ads when the Google Ads and Google Analytics accounts are linked together.
I love the reality of this beautiful garden
I love that idea! And yeah, raccoons have ramsacked our gnome pond too and stolen the rubber ducky that was swimming there for a weekend. So if anybody sees a raccoon with a rubber ducky–it’s mine! :)
I can’t even imagine all the time and work that went into that creative mini and then to have raccoons destroy it–terrible!!!
Hi Janit,
What an inspiring creation your Miniature Garden Houseboat is! You really have a supreme sense of balance, contrast, texture and depth to mold an uncanny realism whilst retaining the naturalness and a coherent theme. Bravo!
This is wonderful!!!
muy lindo arte