Jim,
What a treat to see your craftsmanship on display in a fabulous world you created for it!
Eric
Stunning work, Jim! Fabulous plantings, beautiful landscaping & scenes, wowā¦
Jim Rowson said:
Ha! I am guessing it would be a close race between the critters and the intense heat and sunlight causing them to burst into flames!
Lack of thorns, opens the door.
you must be doing something right they are fast getting onto the tracks in a couple of spots, and are filling in rather quickly. Any hints on fertilizers and care secrets?
Jim can you tell me what the groundcover is among the rocks in the rockfall (last) video. I would be curious if they will live here, I think you said you are zone 9 oddly enough, except for the setting plants of fire in summer we are a 9B, B for burn everything, if i remember right. thanks, Pete
Jim, read your plant list and was wondering what the plant that is in clumps along the sides of the track in the climax in the canyon, if Iām see correctly down here itās call inch plant or afro harty grower, great vidoes, Bill
Thanks, all. Glad the videos were useful and you like how things are proceeding. Iām personally amazed at how much Iām enjoying the transformation.
Bill: I think those plants in the canyon area are this: (Bab) Baby tears ā Soleirolia soleirolii (below is a picture I found on google images searching for the latin name):
Pete: Not totally sure which ground cover you are talking about. Maybe this one? (Bac) Bacopa ā Sutera āGold ānā Pearlsā (image below from google images)
According to garden.org [link]:
Life cycle: Perennial Sun Requirements: Partial or Dappled Shade
Partial Shade to Full Shade
Full Shade Minimum cold hardiness: Zone 9b -3.9 Ā°C (25 Ā°F) to -1.1 Ā°C (30 Ā°F)
So might work for you but not in direct sun. I have sun sails set up so Nancy was picking plants that would work well in shade.
As to care secrets, etc., here are a few things that I think I learned from being around Nancy when she did this:
- We have clay base soil so she āamendedā it by mixing 50-50 with purchased top soil (not with any kind of extra additive just plain top soil)
- Picking the plants was a super important part of this and she did this part pretty effortlessly based on her encyclopedic knowledge. I did buy her book which seems to have some info in it but nothing like having somebody who knows what they are doing
- After planting, she (and I) deeply watered (down to about 6 inches) every couple of days for the first couple of weeks, EXCEPT for the succulents that she let acclimate for a few days before the first watering (something weird about those plants that they need time to get over the shock of transplant)
- Iām now watering the non-desert plants twice a week with a good soak (like 15 minutes on my sprinkers) but may need to adjust that. Weāe had enough rain this spring that I just turned the sprinklers on. The desert plants get about 1/3 of the water.
- A few weeks after planting, Nancy gave the plants a very light surface dusting of fertilizer (nothing fancy just plain old fertilizerā¦ I can ask to get a brand and type if you like). She seemed to scratch the surface and water it to get the fertilizer into the soil a bit. She said this is worth doing once a year in the spring
- One trick she used was to add a pretty deep layer (like 2-3 inches) of non-growable fill around the plants in an effort to discourage weeds. We used āfinesā (the same rock as most of the rocks used in the landscaping) then a mixture of small (3/8") and larger (3/4") rocks to add realistic texture. Iāve been pretty diligent at picking the weeds early when they are just getting started to try to keep them from spreading. This hasnāt been onerous as they have been relatively few of them to deal with. Nancy suggests spraying some very narrow sprays of vinegar on top of where the weeds poke out as a way to discourage their growth without nasty chemicals
- We had aphids on one of the tall succulents and discouraged them with soapy water (another one of her non-chemical ways of dealing with pests)
- At one point we had some squirrels digging up between ground cover plants and they added more of the fines plus small rocks which seems to have discouraged that. An alternative was to use some spices dissolved in water as a spray (like cayenne pepper) to make it unpleasant for the critters (our critters are pretty easy compared to other locales, cough John cough)
And a few design tips that I think I learned during discussions with Nancy:
- Put tall stuff in the front, not the back. Shorter stuff in the back adds to the depth using forced perspective
- Donāt line things up, put them down in groups of 3 in triangles.
- Have clumps of the same plants but mix in a plant from the neighboring clump so you get a bit more organic mixture
- Some of the groundcovers, like the Bacopa above, tend to cascade down the rocks, so plant them at the ridge line
- Play with color, again with groups of the same color but splashes of another color mixed in as you move from one area to another
I probably didnāt get this all down correctly nor is this any kind of exhaustive list. But itās what I remember from our chats.
Hope this is helpfulā¦
[edited to add depth of fines around the plants as well as the pointer to garden.org]
Jim, donāt think tās the same just very similar get a chance Google afro jew plant, I had it here in Florida and it did very well, believe it is of the succulent family and spreads nicely it would grow on to of leaves, rocks anywhere, thanks for the reply, Bill
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Jim, donāt think tās the same just very similar get a chance Google afro jew plant, I had it here in Florida and it did very well, believe it is of the succulent family and spreads nicely it would grow on top of leaves, rocks anywhere, thanks for the reply, Bill
Wow Jim, Spring has really sprung on your railroad, looking great!
The amount of work you and Nancy have put into this is mind boggling. It really looks great. Iām really impressed with all your scale woodworking and I know from experience how time consuming something as simple as a tunnel portal can be to cut and assemble. Great job!
Jim,
If I missed it forgive me but fresh oregano also makes nice shrubbery and itās wonderful dried ā¦nothing like the store bought stuff.
Just saying and the RR looks awesome !
And now the cover of Garden Railways! Great job Jim and Nancy!
Just jaw-dropping gorgeous!!
Ah, I see the latest edition of the Garden Railways Magazine has a picture of some of the succulents that Nancy planted here:
All you need to do to get on the cover is hire Nancy! 
(Iām kidding of course - but it doesnāt hurt to have Nancy know all, and I mean all, about whatās planted in your railroad when sheās thinking about her articles).
I have not received my print version yet. Hope to see it soon!
I will tell you that I took a lot of photos before they found one they liked
Hereās my version before they cropped it for the cover:
Fun!
Congratulations Jim. Now that youāve made the cover of the Railroad magazine will your family treat you differently (https://www.largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-wink.gif)
I want to be clear that Nancy made the cover, and just used me to illustrate it.
And my family will no doubt abuse me more
Huzzah!
Wow, Jim. And just think, we all had a front row seat to watch this masterpiece come alive. Many thanks for taking us on your journey.
Thank you all!