The New Zealand Railways Magazine, Volume 4, Issue 8 (December 1, 1929)

Few Stations Really Hopeless

Few Stations Really Hopeless.

One can imagine the reader saying: “Yes, this is all very well in theory; but it is not so easy to grow plants in a railway yard, where the engine smoke makes its presence felt and the trains are constantly passing to and fro over the gravel-covered shunting yards.” Of course some places are more difficult to deal with than others, but few are really hopeless to the true lover of flowers. Our peculiar “mat-plants,” species of Raoulia and other genera, grow in abundance in the riverbed shingle, and would grow equally well in some of the railway yards; a small introduced Sedum is abundant on waste areas near the railway lines at several places in Canterbury, and might be induced to come a little nearer if properly encouraged; in other places garden escapes of Escholtzias, Cat Mint and Bugloss form bright patches over acres of poor soil, and it would be worth while sowing the seeds in the unused portions of the railway stations or alongside the lines between the stations and leaving them to Nature's care.