Noise modifiers and particles for 3D nature scenes

Since last writing about my efforts to learn 3D Studio Max I've got fairly competent at it, and have even started writing tutorials for 3D Artist magazine. My first tutorial, about the RayFire plugin, is due to appear in next month's issue. Following that, there's a tutorial about using photographic lighting techniques in 3D scenes.

I'm now working on a tutorial about using noise modifiers and particles to produce semi-random geometry, a technique that is especially useful for creating scenes of nature. Last night I worked on a simple test image, in preparation for a more complicated image that will be the subject of the tutorial. Click to enlarge:

In that scene, the fence and wind turbines were created manually, the hills were shaped using noise modifiers, the rocks around the fence were also shaped using noise modifiers, and then the rocks and blades of grass were positioned as particles.

Here's how the scene looked in 3DS:

And here's the particle system:

The image that I'm intending to produce for the tutorial will be similar to this one, but will feature a country lane with a drystone wall to better illustrate the usefulness of noise modifiers to produce semi-random geometry. The wall will be built from a small set of differently-sized blocks, but noise modifiers will make them all look unique and randomly shaped.