Somehow the 58 model trees that consumed my entire satellite workbench needed to condense onto a piece of plywood barely 30 cm long. Of course, there were holes for all of them, marked by little flags, now all but lost in the grass. The flags themselves had become grassy, thanks to the uncaring nature of hairspray.
I started with the pines and worked out in either direction. As each flag was pried out of the glue and grass, it was imperative to stick something in the hole lest it be lost again. The trees were all arranged numerically on the workbench, and almost the same on the ground. So, once the grass-encrusted flag had been deciphered, it was easy to find the appropriate tree and push it home. They barely needed gluing as neighbours propped up neighbours, and indeed I have some doubt that all are connected to the ground.
When the dust had settled, there were half a dozen trees that simply wouldn’t fit, or whose flags are buried like world war ordinance. I cut these orphans up and installed them as low-lying bushes that obscure the front row of trunks.
The resulting thicket has a pleasing level of realism.
