At Double K Ranch bed and breakfast, the landscape plants do double duty, providing aesthetically pleasing gardens and creating backdrops for model railroad vignettes.
The home of Ken and Mary Karrels is among eight garden railroad sites on the annual tour put on by the Tucson Garden Railway Society.
Attendees will discover that garden railroad fans often combine two hobbies, model trains and gardening. That's what the couple does.
Mary puts in and tends to the plants that enhance the vignettes along Ken's more than 700 feet of track that wind through gardens in front of and behind their ranch house near Agua Caliente Park.
At some homes, the garden is formed around the trains. At the Double K Ranch, plants have the edge on the evolution of their railroad setup.
"This was a garden long before a train ran through it," Mary says. As part of that philosophy, she tries to accommodate volunteer plants, those that take hold with no human effort. Salt bush, mesquite and penstemon grow at will, especially in the area that depicts Arizona history and sites.
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When a creosote bush started to grow in the middle of a Western gunbattle on Main Street, the couple rearranged the scene so now a blacksmith shop sits under its shade.
The couple also has intentionally added plants. Vinca, blackfoot daisy, Valentine bush and other flowering plants populate vignettes that don't depict the desert, such as the forest meadow that conjures memories of Mary's Wisconsin home state. Jade succulents become crops at the family farm. Pansies add color to the Chicago scenes from Ken's boyhood.
Because Ken and Mary heavily rely on native and volunteer plants for the landscape, they don't invest much in irrigation. Some lush areas are watered by dripper hoses.
Mary closely monitors the scale of the vegetation. Young Mexican fence post, saguaro and barrel cacti help create desert atmosphere, but once they start growing too large, she'll move them to another location. Salt bush, creosote and Texas rangers get heavy trimming to keep them tiny and shaped like trees.
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If you go
Seventh Annual Rails in the Garden Tour
• What: Self-guided tour of layouts at homes of seven Tucson Garden Railway Society members and the Tucson Botanical Gardens.
• When: 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Saturday and next Sunday.
• Where: Generally east of Alvernon Way between East 22nd Street and East Sunrise Drive.
• Admission: $5, free for 18 and younger with paying adult and for active military families.
• Information: 404-3251 or online at tucsongrs.org
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"This was a garden long before a train ran through it."
Mary Karrels,
Home tour garden railroad designer