The China Mountain is Finally Planted!

What’s the first thing you know about garden railroading? Well, it takes place in a garden! That’s why they call it that!  Until this weekend we’ve been Brown Dirt Railroading…not much fun!
“I say, Brown Dirt Railroading,” sniffs the CEO. “I don’t quite get it.”

“It’s a joke,” the CFO mutters drily over his brandy. “It’s emphasizing the fact that we haven’t planted anything in the garden.”

“Well I’m not certain I get it,” the CEO coughs slightly and cleans his glasses on his napkin.

“That don’t surprise me much,” chuckles the Chief Engineer. “The  only thing I’ve ever seen you get is drunk!”

“Oh, now see here…” the CEO is flustered.

“Gentlemen,” the secretary interjects “…the narrative.”

All go silent again.

Yes, on a whim and a prayer my darling wife, the very love of my life, the Maintenance Operations Manager (or MOM, as my daughter calls her),  planted plants over the China Mountain. Now, for the very first time, the China Section is planted!

The plants, for those of you who know plants, are of the Creeping Charlie variety. They’re green, have leaves, and, well they’re there, in the garden, so to speak. Horticulture was never my subject.

Now, planting plants in the middle of existing trackage is clearly a little difficult, as the  pictures will attest.  Getting the various elements of planting to the planting zone itself was obviously a challenge; dirt appears to have gone everywhere, and water was imported from a hose rather than a judicious little watering can. But I don’t care! I’ve got Plants!

And some of the landscape features that marked the China Section have changed just a little bit. Little features like the road, which when buried by the Wonder Dog (I wonder what he’ll destroy next?) tended to disappear, must have looked like prime planting ground. And gone is the little flat spot I had cleaved (cloven?) out of the China Mountain for the quaint Chinese cottage which had, again, been modified by Mr. Zorro to the point where it just looked like a ducky place to plant a plant.  But I don’t care! I’ve got plants!

And that tunnel we so carefully blasted underneath the roadbed so that the now disappeared road could continue offstage…well, that’s filled with dirt now, and looks more like a cave.  But I don’t care! I’ve got plants!

The Tunnel Appears Plugged!

I’m joking, of course. It’s a wonderful thing MOM did by planting all that greenery, and suddenly the China Section has character. Actually, the China Section at the moment is under a web of Anti-Wonder Dog Netting. My wife and I agree that Mr. Zorro would have a field day in our field of green, digging and rooting and just having too much fun!

Anti-Wonder Dog Netting

“I can’t tell,” says the CEO. “Is he happy or not?”

“He’s groompy, ye windbag,” said the Chief Engineer. Stout number five is just finishing up, and the Chief Engineer tends to forget his manners.  “He’s a groompy sourpuss today.”

“Let’s not print that,” says the PR Guy. “That’s bad press.”

Yes, I am a little grumpy, but I am DELIGHTED to have greens in my garden. It feels so…gardeny!  It’ll take some time for the little suckers to get a hold, and there will be watering and all that stuff. But soon, my friend, soon you’ll see a garden in our garden railway!

Now, on the HO pike in your basement, you get your white glue and your little piece of lichen and, boom, you’ve got a plant. But garden railroading is real railroading, and, in this case, is real gardening! There’s watering and weeding and trimming that has to be done. I’m not sure how the rails will hold up to all of that. The dirt can be swept away…it’s the mud I’m worried about…there’s going to be mud.

We’re down operationally until the Anti-Wonder Dog netting is removed, but that’s okay. Between the Bachmann Not-So-Big Hauler, the damage to the Piko station platform, and stringing of electric wires, I’ve got plenty more railroading to do than just run trains!

But soon I’ll be able to run ‘em through a GARDEN!