Saikei???? (slab planting)

I recently attended a local bonsai club meeting where a demo was held where a nine tree Montezuma Cypress forest was created. According to them (and the weather down here) it's time to start planting/re-potting. I've been wanting to create a forest planting since I became interested in bonsai, and due to the inspiration from the meeting, I decided to attempt a slab planting. I got some small boxwood as nursery stock for $7 bucks a pot and I got three pots. Each pot had two plants in it. The nursery let me harvest some of their moss, and I found a recipe for muck that I prepared a couple months ago, and I had some pre-mixed soil left over. I'm also planning to add a rope bridge I made from hemp twine and tree branches and a small house/hut. What do you think?


Front



Front closer



Right side (which is where I intend to extend the muck wall and put the house



Left side (tried to make it look like natural "steps")



Top view


The rope bridge will be placed across the "gorge" between the two stones in the back. The "bush" in the front left is Thyme. I know the trees are rough, but this slab will give them a place to grow. Once they've outgrown the slab, I plan on potting them off individually. Just somethin to pass the time and try to get some "hands on", don't be too harsh on me.

Hi.
the ground will mature first before you can have a believable trees on both sides of the gorge...so if it were mine I'll focus first on the ground area to enjoy the landscape while waiting for the tree to get matured, one of first thing that i would do is to create an illusion of perspective and create depth. one way of doing it is to widen the front of the gorge and gradually lessen the width as you move towards the rear. adding different sizes of "boulders" on the scene will help too to lessen the heavy impact effect of the huge rocky cliff on the background.

regards,
jun

Thanks, Jun. Yeah, the trees are pretty scrappy. However, they do have buds swelling lower on the trunks that you can't really see in the pics. They originally had some lower branches, but I removed them to open everything up. Perhaps in a year or two I'll begin styling a bit. I also did try to position the boulders as you suggested, I'll make some adjustments and see what I can do. Another thing that's not apparent in the picture is that the whole thing is slanted towards the viewer. Once in a more permanent position, I plan on increasing this angle also. I'll re-position the boulders and snap some new pics with the rope bridge in place. Thanks again for the advice, Jun... I really enjoy all of your landscapes, and the effort you put into sharing your progress with the rest of us. Some of your posts are what provided my inspiration, as well as the knowledge that helped me achieve this. So, minus the immature trees, not to bad for my first slab planting???

For first time slab planting...yours is superb man!

regards,
jun