Your last chance for Common Mullein

[FJ and G]

If you need some juniper trees, now would be the time to go out into the field and collect the upright stalk called common mullein. I took BB the beagle rabbit hunting in a field this morning and brought back a stalk which I inserted into some ties out back I use for erosion control so my air/heating unit doesn't slide down the hill again. BB the beagle investigated this funny looking plant.

In photo 2 you can see the common mullein on my old layout. Simply gauge how tall you want your juniper, cut the stalk and peel away an inch or so of the bottom for a trunk. Then give the stalk a light coating of green latex and then sprinkle on some fine sawdust dyed green or green ground foam. Let dry and you've got a juniper.


BTW, it's last chance because in a few weeks, the stalk fills with juices and comes to life.

[brianel027]

Lucky for you Dave that your real life dog is a little out of scale for a would-be train layout tree. But I'm sure (knowing dogs as I do) that he stood there and thought about it for a minute (thinking in part with his nose) before realizing that he would need some excellent aiming to leave his "business card" on that little twig of a tree.

Maybe you could honor you dog on your layout by having a little scale replica of a dog doing his thing below one of those trackside trees! [:D]

By the way, appreciated your comment some time ago that you enjoy reading my little "book" length comments here. Sometime ago, Thor once joked that "maybe brianel could answer a question without writing a book." Boy did I laugh real hard when I read that.

I'd better stop now before I turn this short quick reply into "A Tree Grows in Brooklyn." [:D]

[FJ and G]

Brian,

In future we can reinforce each other's egos [^][^]

A bit more about junipers. These trees in my area around found growing in the wild and as well as cultivated in built-up areas. They have several advantages for layouts.

They provide a natural windbreak and a natural barrier between industries and other structures to provide some 3-dimension and spatial separation between these elements that appears natural. The green, as well, is good on the eyes; that's why God made so much green in nature!

Also, the trees themselves provide a very thin, tiny footprint on the layout, rising vertically and taking less than a square inch of terrain each.

Incidentally, (and ironically, I might add) pieces of real juniper tree model out finely as pine trees because the needles are so tiny.

[FJ and G]

Here are some juniper trees in the English countryside.

BTW, about 2 years ago, my daughter was going thru some of my train books looking for something to paint, as she knows I'm nuts about trains. She came upon a British duel (or possibly tri-gauge) gauge line and recreated it in oils in about a 2-ft wide painting hanging directly across from my layout.

The camera I'm taking this w/is low res but here goes

[FJ and G]

In addition to Common Mullein, it's your last chance for another type of weed!

Raw weed obtained from the fields only in wintry months



Spray paint it green and presto!