I have an idea of making a botanical layout. My first one, since childhood on a 4X8 didn’t come out right (impossible mathematical mistakes) and (Unforseen Consequences).
So, I thought of just tearing it apart, and since I live in a doublewide (troublewide), I was going to set the benchwork along the walls- removing the closet.
That will give me a 11X12 area room to work with.
My plans are to form sort of an indoor garden railroad, HO of course, but to apply live plants, and using potting soil for the layout. I know that a “floating” bed won’t support HO trains, but I figured I could elevate the track with substrate, with the soil, and ballast as a surround.
My wife supports me on this, but I want some more input with these ideas.
Thanks.
Well, this does give a new twist to the term “garden railroad.”
There was an issue of MR a few months back which featured live cactus. I think the modeller used yogurt cups, and cut holes in the layout for the cups. That way, he could remove the dead ones and replace them with live, and, more important, he could “rotate” the plants outside if they weren’t getting enough sun. For more leafy plants, that would also let you take the greenery outside and mist it with water now and then, without the problems of getting water on your layout.
Gee, you could do a jungle layout, with the mountains of Peru in the background.
Interesting concept. I certainly have not tried it, but being married to a gardener, we have lots of plants in the house. My question: How are the electronic aspects of the layout (engines, track, power system etc.) going to deal with the water, the spills and the humidity. Even if you control the humidity in the trailer, in the immediate area of growing plants, you have high humidity. I would be fearful of corrosion and mold. Keep us posted as you work out those and other problems.
It would be something different, and unusual, I am sure.
The humidity wouldn’t be that bad, as the A/C freezes us out of here (even in this highTexas Sun), but would keep the living organisms far enough away from the tracks, that it shouldn’t pose a problem.
Yes, Mr. Beasley, I heard about the cactus with the Western Theme. The guy knew at some point that the Cactuses would outgrow his prototypically correct setting, and would have to uproot and replant with new ones.
By the way- does anybody know of any Bonzai grass? Ha.
Kidding. I figure the dirt would be dry enough by the tracks to spread out Woodland Scenics turf. It ought ot be grand.
Ok- howabout a Bonzai Lawnmower; Humnum
Bonsai grass (ie scale grass)??? I think it DOES exist. Only it is not actually grass. I have often thought that MOSS, the kind that grows on moist organically-rich soil, looks more like minature grass than anything used on layouts. Keeping it alive though under layout conditions would be a problem-- or keeping the layout alive under mossy conditions.
(By the way, I DON’T mean the “Spanish moss” that grows hanging down on trees on the Gulf Coast. “Spanish moss” is not a moss but a bromeliad.