Garden Railway Forum

Looks wonderful. If I hadn't known I would never have guessed that it isn't in the garden.

Does it live outside when not being exhibited?

Rik

Yep, it lives outside in the garden all year round, set up as you see in the pictures. It's had a couple of years now to develop so its been through about eight seasons of weather from ice & snow, frost, torrential downpours and long hot spells. Some alpines have not done so well and others have thrived and spread. The mind your own business does not do too well, it doesn't like icy weather or hot dry spells. The Raoulia is very sensitive to changes in weather and the original large mound has largely withered, but remnants of it remain amongst the other plants. Only one Sagina remains and the Scelranthus have gone. The Tymes and the Leptinellas are very hardy and prolific. The fir trees require regular pruning to keep the height down and I do this by removing individual shoots rather than with shears. Good job my other hobby is gardening.

I am in the same mind as philipy. It just looks like it is laid down in the garden....

Well first we had the bitter cold and frosts before Christmas and then rain almost everyday since so the layout has taken a bit of a battering. Today found that the birds had been having a fine old time ripping up the moss and other vegetation looking for food. Oh well, it's still two months to go before its first official outing at the Midlands Garden Rail show on 10/11th March so hopefully it will have recovered a bit by then. It never looks quite the same in any given month so Peterborough should be better. It is at its most floriferous in May/June.

How did it fair in the very hot, dry weather of 2022?

I am guessing you had to keep watering, and it stressed the plants badly.

Phil.P

It survived the summer much better than this winter, but I think it will recover, by 10th March??? It is easy enough to replace any plants that are past their best. Time will tell, but as in the real world, gardens are not their best before Spring gets well under way. Each month that passes changes the scene, so its appearance in Barrow Hill in September will be different from that in March.