It always pays to keep your eyes open

Back in early November, before my prostate operation, my wife Chris was getting me to clean up the garden (she is the ganger and I am the labourer, she has the know how and a bad back). Assisting me at the time was Dave "Rowdy" Allen a modelling friend and fellow Rambler. We had been removing some old plants and I pulled up a small plant and thought that the roots looked like a tree. Now this is something I had read somewhere a number of years ago; a tree will have a root structure as big as the tree itself and the root system of a small plant could be used to make a model tree. I showed it to Rowdy and then snipped off the plant and put the root system aside, washing it later after all was done in the garden.

My operation intervened (I am getting there, just dealing with the bladder related aftermath) and during this time the roots dried out nicely.

Unfortunately I didn't take a photo of the root system before making a tree, however it did appear in the background of a photo I took of the weathered Ampol tanker I have previously posted about.

Studying the root system in the photo, long 'branches' can be seen which are proprtionally too long for a tree. I carefully trimmed these back and used the trimmings and super glued them lower down to the same or other branches to give the tree a better shape. I had to use some super glue (ACC) accelerator as it was too hard to hold the fine branches in place long enough for the glue to set.

After this I used small pieces of MiniNatur 913-21S Lombardy Poplar Foliage - Spring that I bought at the Model Railroad Craftsman at Blacktown NSW. The leaf colour is a little too green and should be more olive in colour but the only other foliage available was for a Beech tree which is much too dark for gum leaves.

I applied the foliage with super glue which was easy enough just a bit tedious.

I think that it turned out pretty well as a model of one of those gum trees that split off major trunks near the base. Unfortunately I can't tell you what type of plant it was, so keep your eyes open the next time you are doing the gardening.