My mind is full of ideas for the new garden. There is nearly twice the land (8192sqm) as my garden in Chodron. Already, this seems to be an exciting new project but at the same time I’m concerned that the things I’m capable of creating seem a bit above my skill level.

I was lucky to find a plot on the Nishijima sim. It is adjacent to Little Yoshiwara (Milarepa sim) and this is really an ideal neighbor in terms of theme and quality. As with all mainland sims, some of the other neighboring plots range from incongruous with my theme to just plain ooogly.  So, the first thing I did was to erect (omg, I said “erect”… hehe) large woodland screens and walls around three sides.

The second major task was to terraform the main land features, primarily a new rendition of The Meandering Pond. And right away there was a major challenge with the pond, namely the small 10x10sqm water prims I had used in the past didn’t look right. The prims looked like tiles in the much larger areas I had created for the waters. Lawdy, lawdy.

Fortunately, after extensive shopping, I found Sub Dimension Studios. Their water prims and textures give inland waters a much needed new look. Yes, prim waters can’t compare to the ocean waters, but I think SDS has made a big stride foward in capturing a shimmering quality in their products.

Another nice thing about the new land is that there is some latitude in the terraforming, not like on an island sim but enough to give the garden some new dimensions. There is a lot of work left to do, but I think I can open the garden before month end. That’s my goal for now.