A Volia

[dasneviano]

First of all, hello!
Even though I've been coming to this site for a few years, this is my first post.

This is a map I started a couple of days ago, of a region in my fictional world called "A Volia". As usual, I meant to do a quick thing and I'm sure it will drag on for ages. One of my main problems so far is keeping the style uniform. I'm quite pleased with the relief effect, but I'm not so sure how I could add forests and desert without straying from it. I spent a few hours today playing with some sand patterns, dry brushes, etc, but can't find a good looking option.
I also changed the forest. Before I had a layer with Bevel and Emboss and Drop Shadow, and was using a scattered brush that could emulate vegetation quite well. But then it was looking too realistic a forest sitting right next to that old fashioned ocean. So now I have a simple see-through green layer, but can't say I'm super pleased with it either.

So any feedback would be appreciated!
Thank you!
Ian