Is it possible to use real dirt from the garden mixed with diluted white glue for ground cover. I remember hearing years ago that you need to bake the dirt in an oven to kill any micro organism that may be present before you apply the dirt. Any thoughts?
New York Central 54
I would not use garden soil, but you might have a better quality garden than I do.
However, I have “collected” lots of dirt samples from my trips out West that I intend to screen/sift and use for ground cover.
Baking seems unecessary. I was planning to use a rinse of diluted bleach.
I am interested in what others have to say.
-Kevin
Thanks Kevin.
Here in the UK baking soil is the done thing. The trouble is sometimes baking has to be done two or three times. The effort taken is not worth the slim reward.
I use dried tea for soil.
David
It really depends on the type of soil. If your soil includes a lot of clay, it won’t work real well. Non-clay soils may be fine.
I made some dirt for my layout by baking soil in the often, then sifting it for different grades. It didn’t work for general ground cover, but it works great as ballast when mixed with stone ballast (for a line that sufferes from not enough maintenance). Here’s a six minute video of how I make it into my dirty ballast:
2021 01 08 How I Make “Dirty” Ballast - YouTube
The problem with clayish soils is that the expand when wet, then shrink as they dry. I thought real dirt would work great for my yard dirt, but this is what I got:
It looked a lot worse in person. The dirt cracked and split all over the place! I tried a thinner application, and still no joy. But it works great as a major ingredient for ballast, so I still make and use it.
As ballast:
By the Chesapeake Bay, my soil was really just sand, and I have a whole tub of it. The reason to bake it was to sterilize it. In Virginia, my soil looks like unbaked bricks, has the consistency of fudge or really tough modeling clay when wet.
I use real dirt all the time. My buddies and I have been doing this for many years now. No problems with bugs or other critters as everything is so soaked with glue that the critters don’t have a chance.
I collect dirt from a variety of places and sift it through various screens to end up with fine powder. I use all of the various sizes of dirt particles on the layout in various locations.
Both photos use sifted real dirt.
Have fun,
Guy
I have found from talking over the years that roughly 60% silts to 40%clays. Silts of a rather fine texture is ideal. Not everybody has that though. Mor recently unsanded grouts are becoming popular.
Shane
Guy, those are great pictures.
Your modeling looks wonderful.
-Kevin
I made up two batches of real dirt some years ago. Yes I did spread it out on a decent-sized baking sheet and put it in a slow oven for about two hours.
I then rough pulverized it by placing the dried and cooled soil in heavy plastic bags and pounded it with a large faced rubber mallet.
I’m fortunate to have a decent selection of W.S. Tyler test sieves and I passed the soil through these making three grades of ground cover. The finest was run through a 260 mesh screen and is quite like paint pigment.
I have two colors, one being a golden-tan color and the other more like a burnt sienna color. I don’t use them exclusively for my main ground cover, afterall, paint is but earthen pigment in a binder or carrier.
What I find it very useful for is to sprinkle into foliage, especially static grass “tufts” which make them look “planted” rather than just sitting on top of the soil.
Here’s a small patch at the lower left:
Signal_11-21oh by Edmund, on Flickr
The area around this burned out cabin is homegrown real dirt:
Camp-tracks by Edmund, on Flickr
The parking lot (car park) is real dirt:
PRR_SG_tower-10-15 by Edmund, on Flickr
Good Luck, Ed
sorry off topic, but gmpullman could you check your messages?
Charles
Got it, Charles [Y] Thanks, Ed
I use zip texturing. Real dirt is hard to get the right color or texture, at least in HO. You can also brush in the zip mixture to your ground cover to blend it in better.
Kevin,
Thanks for the kind words [:)]
Guy
I’ve used gravel gathered on our street for a small diorama a few years ago. I sifted it to two sizes. I will use leftovers for my upcoming scenery work. For finer dirt, I plan on using commercial grout. It’s not cheap but I can get pretty much the color I want and I don’t need to do any further preparation.
Simon
I use real dirt all the time as a base cover in a lot of areas. It’s easy (for me) to find various colors locally.
I screen it and glue it down using the same method used for ballast. The key is the screening. I first use a sifter with a mesh that is similar to window screen in size. That then goes through another sifter with a very fine mesh, netting almost powder, but still granules.
Anything “living” in it wouldn’t pass that fine screen and any micro-organisms would be permanently sealed in with the glue.
Mark.
Most of the soil in VA where I live is reddish clay, so best to avoid.
Great pics of actual dirt being used.
Even 40% clay would be pretty clayey. I used to classify soils for a living and we did the thread test to roughly estimate percentage of clay.
But I’d agree, you probably want no clay for anything on a layout. None really. Silt and fine sand, may be ok.
I have used real dirt for scenery, I keep an old baking pan for it and simply cook it on the grill to dry it and kill whatever is in it.
I also do a fair bit of concrete grinding and I save the concrete dust for scenery, it makes great concrete.
I had to dig a French drain earlier this year here at my house in Fairfax County.
It was like shoveling blocks of hard peanut butter ice cream out of the ground. It was exhausting.