Plants for Garden Railways

A place for discussing garden railway scenery, such as buildings, trees, etc....
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andymctractor
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Re: Plants for Garden Railways

Post by andymctractor » Wed Sep 11, 2019 1:45 pm

andymctractor wrote: Thu Aug 01, 2019 11:46 pm About 50% of my trees are box but I've not bought any more since I heard of the deadly disease that is spreading up the UK.
Page 19 of the i newspaper Tues 10th Sept had an article looking at the Ham Estate owned by the National Trust which has almost two thirds of a mile of Box. They've noticed that a group of jackdaws have developed a taste for the 'box tree moth'. When the moths emerge the jackdaws appear. Gardeners at the estate are exploring ways to encourage the jackdaws as some badly damaged areas of box have begun to rejuvenate.
I'm going to suggest that if you see a jackdaw or similar pecking at any sad looking box bushes, rather than blame them for the damage you might encourage them to stay and eat their fill.

Good luck.
Regards
Andy McMahon

If it moves, salute it.  If it doesn't move, paint it. (RN sailors basic skills course 1968)

DonW
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Re: Plants for Garden Railways

Post by DonW » Wed Sep 11, 2019 11:53 pm

We have quite a lot of box hedging but we also get visits from the local Jackdaws which sounds like it might help.

Thanks for the info.

Don

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Andrew
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Re: Plants for Garden Railways

Post by Andrew » Tue Sep 17, 2019 1:50 pm

I was tweaking a fishplate on the lift-out bridge next to the back gate the other day and wondered what all the strange yellow detritus all over the track was - looking up, I noticed that the box tree above it was a complete mess, which seems to be the work of the box tree moth. I'll find an alternative, but I'm rather sad about it - box trees have been part of my garden railway world for the 15 years we've lived at the current address. They've survived being transplanted twice while the garden was completely trashed by building work, but it looks like they may be on their way out. Unless I can find me some jackdaws, of course, or persuade the local robins, sparrows, tits and blackbirds that the box tree moth is a tasty delicacy...

Cheers,

Andrew.

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philipy
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Re: Plants for Garden Railways

Post by philipy » Tue Sep 24, 2019 10:10 am

I've copied here the gist of a discussion from Invicta's Cobtree Line thread which was getting hi-jacked.
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Re: The Cobtree Line

Post by Andrew » Mon, 23 Sep 2019 9:13 pm
Nice picture! Might have to try some of those plants...

Does your MYOB have any adverse impact on your SBR'd ballast Philip? I recently weeded mine where it had grown over some track which I ballasted earlier in the year, and it appeared to pull up some of the ballast, but I think it might just have been where I didn't apply enough glue...

Cheers,

Andrew
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Re: The Cobtree Line


Andrew wrote: ↑
Mon, 23 Sep 2019 9:13 pm

Does your MYOB have any adverse impact on your SBR'd ballast Philip? I recently weeded mine where it had grown over some track which I ballasted earlier in the year, and it appeared to pull up some of the ballast, but I think it might just have been where I didn't apply enough glue...

A quick squirt of "24hr weedkiller" solves that problem without the need for physical force! You can never get it all out anyway by pulling.
Philip
www.tinyurl.com/philip-trains

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Re: The Cobtree Line


Maybe you are right, but I've also got dirty brown rather than green fingers, so I dunno.

This picture shows my Aubretia, Thyme and MYOB.
The Aubretia at low level to the left is where the original high level plant rooted itself this year after cascading itself down.
The MYOB is just doing it's own thing and covering everything it can.
The Thyme to the left, growing across the track, has done that in the last week or two, and I noticed only yesterday that it has crept along the outer edge of the MYOB on the paving slab!! It started life a small rooted piece that got pulled off the main plant a couple of yards away and I just pushed in the gap about this time last year.

The fungi just appear, we get many different varieties, dunno what they are, but I guess it shows how damp things are generally.

The rockery is facing slightly west of south and spends much of the day in the shadow of the house.
DSC_0002 small.jpg
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I'm not at home at the moment so can't reciprocate with pictures of my attempts but can I ask how much of a soil pocket the aubretia has? If any, of course. The few areas where my myob does well look similar to your patch, and other parts of the line have patches of moss taking root, whilst others remain starkly barren.

And apologies for the thread hijack

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Philip

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philipy
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Re: Plants for Garden Railways

Post by philipy » Tue Sep 24, 2019 10:26 am

In answer to your question - 'Not a lot'.
At the top there are pockets between the rockery stones which may go down a few inches of soil, but the rocks themselves go maybe a foot or even less.

This picture shows the rockery when it was fairly new back in 2013. Most of the plants in this pic have long since gone the way of all things ( my non-green fingers at work!) but the rocks haven't changed. As you can see there isn't a lot of distance between the bottom of the rocks and top of the tunnel lining, but the aubretia was eventually planted roughly where the purplish flowers are in the top centre of the pic, and there is a wee bit more depth there, between the tunnel and side of the waterfall.
Rockery new.jpg
Rockery new.jpg (136.03 KiB) Viewed 15858 times
Philip

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Re: Plants for Garden Railways

Post by Lonsdaler » Tue Sep 24, 2019 4:01 pm

Good stuff Philip, thank you. I think mine may have the luxury of too much too clayey soil, despite adding grit. I may go for a makeover when I get back home, if the weather remains conducive :mrgreen:
Phil

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My Line - https://gardenrails.org/forum/viewtopic ... 41&t=11077

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