Re: Back Home! now Cathy's book and ph questions

If you wanted to go bonsai, you could plant them in pots and bury the pots, then pull them out once a year and root prune them. Kind of a modular-design idea. Sounds like a lot of work, but it would likely help with weed control and allow you to change the landscape by simply swapping the pots around. Might also minimize any influence landscape rocks [or anything else, like moles, voles, and gophers] had on the growing environment.

Guess this means it would be a predominantly hardscape construction, but what else is new?

On Dec 26, 2005, at 5:07 PM, Donna wrote:

And I will be your first customer! :)

Actually, there are not any plants 'just' for garden railroads. Also comes
into play is your zone, and everything else a gardener has to put up with
while browsing books and magazines.

Cathy you should spend the winter reading about bonsai plants... especially
the pruning/training of same. Start with naturally small leaf plants and
plan on pruning them to death to stay small.

Another issue is all the mountains and rock formations they want to add. Not
much room for roots at/just below the surface, so rock garden plants are
also a choice as long as they allowed drainage issues into those mountains.

Another killer of the garden railroads is the stones they use. Darn stuff
leaches out into the growing sections, so plan for it depending on what
stones Gary uses. John is using lime stone bases for the crushed ballasts.

This winter I plan on learning more about the ph of soils and what happens
when exposed to chemical changes from rocks over periods of time. Can I
nurse a plant thru the first year of ungodly ph swings? How long does this
nightmare last? Should plants that need that only be planted, then 3 years
down the line they all die since they are now not getting all that since the
rocks are no longer leaching it out? (HA! Probably no time, anyone here want
to give me a crash course or at least answer my current questions?)

Donna


-----Original Message-----
From: owner-gardenchat@hort.net [o*@hort.net] On
Behalf Of Cathy Carpenter
Sent: Monday, December 26, 2005 2:24 PM
To: gardenchat@hort.net
Subject: Re: [CHAT] Back Home!

You may just have an idea there. One more thing for my 'to do' list!

Cathy, west central IL, z5b

On Dec 26, 2005, at 10:06 AM, james singer wrote:


Sounds like a book waiting to be written, Cathy. And since it
appears that you're going to have to research the plants, make and
keep good notes.

On Dec 25, 2005, at 11:05 PM, Cathy Carpenter wrote:


My one frustration was that there does not seem to be
anything published that focuses on garden railroad plantings.

Island Jim
Southwest Florida
27.0 N, 82.4 W
Hardiness Zone 10
Heat Zone 10
Minimum 30 F [-1 C]
Maximum 100 F [38 C]

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Island Jim
Southwest Florida
27.0 N, 82.4 W
Hardiness Zone 10
Heat Zone 10
Minimum 30 F [-1 C]
Maximum 100 F [38 C]

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