I use well sifted dirt from my yard in the few vignettes & dioramas that I have made. No problems from those. I also have used twigs gathered from various places, and no problems there either. One other organic source that I have used, and is perfectly safe, is food spices such as oregano to replicate foliage on the ground like dead leaves. Yes, there are plenty of things out there that you can buy to fill these roles. But if you're on a tight budget, a little creativity can make you money go further.

I hit everything with a couple of good coats of matte varnish when done. I think that's enough to keep critters from munching on it. So far (cross your fingers) no problems. 

Here's a little decoration for a vignette, made with a piece of root from an arborvitae and some old tea leaves:

The shrub had died, so I had to dig it out.  I saved bits of the finer part of the root network.  I soaked them in a bucket of water for a little while, till the rest of the clumps of dirt dissolved and fell off.  Then I set the roots to dry in the sun.  I just cut little bits off as needed.  For the foliage, I used fine tea leaves collected after brewing up a cup.  I have a small plastic jar full of them.  I just brush a little white glue onto the roots and sprinkle the tea leaves over them.

"Never throw anything out!"

Nice work, Baron! Who's the figure by?

I've never tried using sifted dirt in my builds, preferring to stick to more refined and controllable pigments. However, I'm​ not averse to using some twigs or sticks for dioramas...depending on the project and application, they can be better choices than more expensive products. 

One of my favorite YouTube modelers, Hamilkar Barkas, is a big proponent of organic/backyard resources for dioramas...he uses dirt, twigs, and rocks to great effect in his builds. 

I used to build really large dioramas, the kind with railroad tracks

About the only real negative I encountered was using stuff that mice liked. Plants with seeds.

jackball74

Nice work, Baron! Who's the figure by?

 

GMorrison

I used to build really large dioramas, the kind with railroad tracks

About the only real negative I encountered was using stuff that mice liked. Plants with seeds.

Dirt, twigs, etc is fine in my book.  But I draw the line at grass....I refuse to water and mow.

Without thinking I used moss and lichen on some lighthouse dioramas I did many years ao.   It took a few months and everything was brown and had shrunk.

Far to many scale train landscaping products available to go after live foliage.  IMV

Rob

For those of you using real soil, do you bother sterilizing it, and how?  I haven't used real soil, but I had an idea that if I did, I'd stick it in a glass dish and microwave it, to kill anything living.

And while we're talking about natural products, winter is a great time to collect fine gravel or stone dust.  I get mine from the street out in front of my house, especially from piles of plowed snow.  I use an old garden trowel, or even an old tablespoon, to scrape the "dirty" layer into a plastic container.  When the snow melts, I pour off the water (and use that to water my plants), and then I pour the remaining slurry in an old baking dish, and stick it in the oven on the lowest setting.  Once the water is evaporated, I sift the material by size, and store it in plastic jars for use in dioramas.

the Baron

For those of you using real soil, do you bother sterilizing it, and how?

No I usually encase it in a clear coat, resin or paint.

Some examples

Dirt sea floor. This one has the seeds as fish.

On bases I use it as texture over a base of spackle. I brush on Future then sprinkle on the sifted dirt. Repeat as needed to get the look that I want. I'm pretty sure the Future will deal with anything in there unwanted. Adding any paint on top to color it just adds to the kill.

jackball74

Were you an Orange Blossom Hobbies junkie? I loved that place, too bad it went under. I saw Pat from plastics at a show a few months back.

I gave up on dirt for terrain so i make my own out of Durhams Water Putty sprinkled with either fine play sand or crushed kitty litter. I then use craft acrylics to color the ground. After that I use diluted white glue as a bonding agent then dried flowers and foliage from HL.

Here is an abandoned tank dio using the above method. 

modelcrazy

 

 

the Baron

For those of you using real soil, do you bother sterilizing it, and how?

 

 

No I usually encase it in a clear coat, resin or paint.

Some examples

 

Dirt sea floor. This one has the seeds as fish.

 

 

 

Excellent builds, MC!

Thanks!

the Baron

Here's a little decoration for a vignette, made with a piece of root from an arborvitae and some old tea leaves:

The shrub had died, so I had to dig it out.  I saved bits of the finer part of the root network.  I soaked them in a bucket of water for a little while, till the rest of the clumps of dirt dissolved and fell off.  Then I set the roots to dry in the sun.  I just cut little bits off as needed.  For the foliage, I used fine tea leaves collected after brewing up a cup.  I have a small plastic jar full of them.  I just brush a little white glue onto the roots and sprinkle the tea leaves over them.

"Never throw anything out!"

 

 

I can't read the tea leaves. Do you have a crystal ball?

I use natural stuff in the few I've done recently....

This one : 

Return of the Jedi Speeder Bike build...finished by Justin Ryan, on Flickr

....has used coffee grounds in the groundwork.

This one. ...

_mg_4729-01 by Justin Ryan, on Flickr

...has oregano as the autumn leaves.

And I built one with a beach base, and I used aquarium sand for the beach.

I just sealed it with several coats of clear after was done. ...