I am at the point in my layout where the trackwork is down and am putting scenery down in the yard.  I am using real dirt that is set with diluted glue. I am wondering how to place the buildings.  I'd like to get some input on whether modelers put the buildings directly on the "dirt" scenery or make some sort of base and put dirt down around it.  

I'm looking for ideas on how to achieve the look of this reddish grass/weed; whatever it is.

I'd like to put an area like this between my sludge pond and the turntable

http://model-railroad-hobbyist.com/node/31151?page=6

This past Jan I had the pleasure of visiting a semi-annual 'open house' layout in Orlando Fl. It was a pretty interesting layout, and one scene in particular attracted my attention. it was a steel mill scene placed in a corner area in a diagonal manner rather than in conformity with the straight sides of the corner. 

My thoughts were that it presented a lot of 'structure' in a fairly small space.

I am interested in such an idea as I hope to put a steel mill scene on my new relatively small layout

I am planning to put a milling building (like the Walther's Red Wing Mill) and wondered if having grain brought in by covered hopper and flour/ground meal out by Airslide hopper would make sense. If so, should there be an inbound and outbound track or just one track with separate spots for the inbound and outbound cars.

Overall plan is have several small grain elevators to create the loads for the mill and a bakery complex for the outbound flour. This is still in the start of the overall planning for the layout.