At the end of my previous blog post, the new blue crane was finished.

But that gap between the crane and the track. That just didn't look right. We all know from the real railway that plants make a nuisance of themselves, nature reasserts itself quite quickly. I felt that bare area would quickly become home to some plant life.

So, out came the bits boxes. I particularly went for 1x1 slopes (known as 'cheese wedges') in various greens and other 'planty' colours. I also fished out some 1x1 barrels with leaves, flower stalks and other assorted bits of green, just to see how a bit of detailing would look.

It quickly knocked the hard edges off the model. Varying the greens was difficult, given Lego's limited colour palette, but what little variety I could find helped as well.

By combining some of the features I could add in a flowering plant, as often seen in the wilder parts of railway undergrowth.

In my head the little guy is coming along with the brush to sweep away some of the pesky moss and weeds. They won't stay down for long!

This was a few minutes messing around to see what could be done. Compared to the rampant shrubbery created by master builders it looks a bit poor, to be honest. But I'm holding off anything too creative until I have the crane and the rest of the freight yard in some kind of display. The great thing about working in Lego is you can try things and if it doesn't look right or you just fancy it a bit different, it's a simple case of taking it apart and clipping it back together again. Those weeds may grow several times over until I'm happy with them!