Garden Railway Forum

Following my trip to the Chelsea Flower show, I've ben looking at how I can get more flower interaction into my line - being 3ft off the ground is a challenge - so I have been looking at 2 strategies based around levels

1) Ground up - I'm working on getting more tall plants at the back of my beds that will grow up and flower at around the height of the line - Foxgloves and Clematis are the favourite candidates at the mo but others are being planted - below we see Kenny slipping through Foxgloves and a white plant in the background - I've forgotten which this is - also at this time of the year you can see the vine a grow along this fence in full effect - always needs trim back before running sessions but greens things up nicely
2) Rail height planting - I've started to create pockets alongside the track to hold pots that are planted with small foliage plants - times are good for this and this one below even flowers daily scale flowers - I also have some pots of MYOB growing ready for some of the holes.
I'll post some clematis pics soon as most of these are now starting to flower - the one above was a flowering thyme I bought at Peterborough - the only challenge is keeping the little pots watered sufficiently - one forgotten session and they dry out

Cheers - Mark the Gardener!

Very nice colour enhancements to your line and, being located in the South East, you benefit from warmer and drier weather than here in West Wales. I have tried Foxgloves as tall back-scene plants but they quickly spread and began to take over every available spot, so have now been removed.... shame as they are do look pretty!

Yes Peter, I agree that they can be invasive - but I do encourage the seeds to take by cutting the seeded flower stalk off at the end of flowering and leaving them to ripen along the back of beds- I then let them start to grow the season afterwards then lift from where they are, pop into their own pots to grow on and then plant out when gaps appear - I've introduced a few different cultivated ones and hoping we get some cross pollination.

Its odd that I can grow foxgloves for fun but can't get Lupins to do anything - I call them slug food!