Mavis is going to flip when she gets back from Germany and sees my new model train in the garden. Not necessarily in a good way, mind you – it’s possible she’ll be bowled over with horror, especially when she sees what I had to do to her hellebores to set up the track through the front beds. Maybe she won’t speak to me for a week, but it’ll be worth it. Besides, she’ll come round; she always does.
It did cost me a pretty penny to buy enough tracks to get all the way around the yard. Then there were the electronics, not to mention the numerous flowering shrubs I had to buy to create the clusters of ‘trees’ at each station. I did think to use the hellebores I uprooted, but they’re just not woody enough, and they don’t look like trees. Things like hydrangeas and azaleas, on the other hand, can make very respectable trees.
I also bought eighty dwarf mondo grass plants from Larry, which I’ve run them all the way along the sides of the track. Now, that’s something Mavis could well flip out about. She’s never been into masses of ornamental grass. I’m not that into them myself; I just thought they looked like mini agapanthus plants, which you often see up the sides of train tracks. Ultimately, the effect wasn’t quite right, but it looks fine.
Mavis is quite forgiving of my train-related impulses, so hopefully she’ll understand why I had to dig up the pomegranate tree to make way for the bridge. It’s just the way things had to go, structurally speaking. She doesn’t eat the pomegranates anyway; the birds always get them first. Once she has a go on the train, she’ll understand my reasoning.
Oh, that’s right. I also had to move the veggie bed to the dark side of the garden, because the bright patch was the only place where the solar-powered generator seemed to work. That’ll take some explaining.