Book review: ’50 Beautiful Deer-Resistant Plants’

Book cover.

50 Beautiful Deer-Resistant Plants Garden Railways file image   Was Elmer Fudd, Looney Tunes’ little rifle-toting hunter of Bugs Bunny fame, justified in shooting at Bugs Bunny? Remember how the “waskily wabbit” tunneled under Elmer’s garden yanking down one juicy carrot after another? In cartoons, we cheer for the bunny, but what if he had […]

Read More…

Cooper’s ice plant

Trailing ice plant, Cooper’s ice plant

  Common name: Trailing ice plant, Cooper’s ice plant Latin name: Delosperma cooperi USDA Hardiness Zones: 6 to 9 Cultural needs: Well-drained soil, sun or part shade Plant size: 3-inches high by 3-feet wide Sometimes called hardy ice plant or purple ice plant, this low succulent is not to be confused with the larger purple […]

Read More…

A beginner’s guide to dwarf Alberta spruce trees

garden railway with lots of rocks and conifers

This is a beginner’s guide to dwarf Alberta spruce trees. Across the country, hundreds of us rely on one, small scale, slow growing, almost perfectly conical evergreen to fill our miniature forests, towns, and mountains: dwarf Alberta spruce (Picea glauca ‘Conica’). How do you prune them, what kind of conditions do they really need, and […]

Read More…

Bigger and better: 7/8n2 in the garden

78n2_1

The author and several helpers modeled the Alhambra Trestle over the course of three years. A 7/8″ Fairymead pulls Dave Frediani cars past 22 Japanese maples, both dwarf and semi-dwarf, back to the caboose. Nancy Norris After decades of building and maintaining garden railways, I’ve built my own railway for low maintenance and live-steam access. […]

Read More…

Goji berry

goji_berry

Nancy Norris Common name: Goji berry, wolfberry, Chinese boxthorn Latin name: Lycium barbarum, L. chinense Plant type: Perennial USDA Hardiness Zones: 6-9 for L. barbarum, 4-9 for L. chinense Cultural needs: Well-drained, high pH (alkaline) soil, full sun Plant size: 5-8′, easily pruned to stay 2-3′ as in photo Nurseries stock Goji berry plants more […]

Read More…

First run of the winter

model train running on a snowy garden railway

Name: Nick Lucas Railroad Name: Stoney Creek Railroad Location: Stoney Creek, Ontario Scale: 1:20.3 Theme: Backwoods Description: Accucraft Ruby/Forney bash, AML iron mountain cars, and a scratchbuilt caboose […]

Read More…