Travelin' thru the jungle on the AV Cannonball...

[Mik]

 OK, so I've been busy, or maybe just lazy - but either way no trains had actually run on the AV in over a month.... Lots of rain, lots of hot, humid days... It was getting to the point the track wasn't even VISIBLE in places anymore. Creeping Charlie, phlox, petunias, some volunteer distant cousin to morning glory with light blue flowers, roses, even the basil and thyme had simply taken over everything. The cute little 'volunteer' maple seedlings had gone from 3" tall to over 3 FEET!....

After 2 hours of pulling weeds, trying to redirect groundcovers, and just plain cutting stuff back, we managed to find and clean the rails so we could run a sightseeing special....








Remember the basil? This is only about HALF of what we trimmed off of those 3 tiny plants we put in back in May....

We're going to snip the leaves off and dry them, then seal it in bags and freeze it to cook with. We also have a bunch of Lemon Thyme to dry... The Greek Oregano, OTOH isn't doing very well.....

 The maple trees will get transplanted this fall or next spring. If anybody wants one -- or a baggie or two of fresh basil, stop by!

[PJM20]

I good for trees. My mom wanted to take one of my baby blue spruces away, but I defend it to my last LGB figure and won the battle. Does the basil look good for a ground cover and how much does it creep, I got some basil seeds that need to go somewhere. - Peter

[Mik]

 The stuff we have is the 'boxwood' variety... when we planted them they were fist sized... 3 months later they were bigger than a basketball...... I don't know if there is a variety that you could use it for groundcover, but most will make you a nice dense 'woodlot' thicket.... and great soups and sauces.

 

Woolly Thyme makes a great low groundcover, and is fairly fast growing.... (the grey-green stuff in several pictures)  But I don't think you can eat it.