First, I use a bed of white glue to attach some lichen to the back border, where the backdrop meets the earth. (White glue, unlike yellow carpenter's glue, dries clear.)
Next, using the trees primarily from the "forest anchor" group (see my previous post), I start planting in the back, and work forward. I use an awl or assorted size nails to poke the right size hole for each tree trunk. Sometimes I have to give the nail a little tap with a hammer to break thru the plaster crust, but once thru that, it will go into the underlying foam very easily. I don't glue most of the trees in place, but if I get a hole too large, I use the tacky glue to help it stand up straight.
Below, 16 "anchor" trees are planted in this triangular area, which is about 1 square foot in size. They're not packed in tight, as you can see, but most are just touching each other.
Next, I place "forest filler" trees between the anchors to fill it out, and make it look like the natural, untended area that it is. I just lower the fillers in from the top, most don't even touch the ground, they just fill out the dense look of the canopy from head on, or from above. Finally, I glue in some more lichen and some loose leftover supertree material at the front as underbrush. I added 17 filler trees here, so not counting the lichen and loose material, there are 33 trees in the photo below. You can see why I need to make hundreds of trees!
