Miniature Artificial Grass and Moss

A ground-cover prop: artificial grass and moss for laying over the floor of a dollhouse garden, a terrarium or a photo backdrop. It is the layer that goes down before anything else, because a garden scene is mostly ground, and a patch of green under a bench or a patio set does more for the look of the scene than another piece of furniture would. It is sold as a scene prop at the 1:12 dollhouse scale used across the range, and it goes over the base of a scene rather than standing on it, so it can be added at almost any point in a build without disturbing the arrangement.

You pay $4.99, and the compare-at price is $5.99. Six photographs come with this piece and all of them are labelled as main product photos, so there are no option images and no per-option labels to choose between. A badge offers 3 for $12.99, which is the figure to work from if you are covering more than one patch of ground or want to keep a spare piece aside for the next scene.

It belongs with the Garden & Outdoor range, where the seating for patios, terraces and park scenes is grouped together, and it works underneath them: the white garden furniture set and the bench and chair set both need something under them before the scene looks finished rather than staged.

Ground cover is also the cheapest way to change a scene, because it sets the colour that everything else stands on. Laid across the floor of a room box it can turn an indoor set into a garden, and a small piece placed in a corner reads as planting beside a patio. Where a scene needs more green than one piece covers, two pieces laid side by side read as a single lawn, and the larger props can be set down on top afterwards.

Keep the pieces in a small bag or box between builds so they stay together and do not end up mixed in with other props. Lift them with dry fingers rather than a damp cloth, and press them down flat when you set a scene so the floor underneath does not show through in patches. If a piece has been folded away for a while, lay it out flat for a few minutes before it goes into the scene.