Needed something to fill an unused area of my layout but it couldn't be too tall and block out the culvert loader/unloader in the background and, with incentive from the latest OGR run, decided to build a vegetable garden. I had some extra Plastruct 1/4" channel lying around from a previous project and glued some pieces together to form the perimeter edging and painted it brown and weathered it.
I added a green hedge around the interior of the perimeter from Scenic Express and all the vegetables were also from them. The stacks of crates and boxes were from Model Tech Studios and I cut some of the top boxes of the molds off with a Dremel and saw blade to place on the counter tops of the farm stand. I also added some additional paint and weathering to the boxes.
The farm stand is a Bar Mills "craftsman" kit which can be made into a lunch stand or farm stand. In the hobby world, "craftsman kit" can sometimes be code for, "if the pieces don't fit, make them fit", but this kit was very well done with laser cut wood pieces on thin 3" x 5" sheets. The instructions weren't all that clear, but by referring to the photos, an intermediate or advanced modeler should have no problem figuring out how everything goes together. The instructions say to use yellow wood or white glue for assembly, but I used CA glue with no issues and the advantage is that, by using a CA accelerator, there is no waiting for glue drying time. This kit has exterior walls and interior studding with an adhesive backing that are applied right over the inside of the wall pieces. It also has some exterior studding that gives the structure some excellent detailing. There is a kitchen, which I detailed and painted and the kit comes with a stove pipe, roofing material and barrels. Once the basic stand structure is completed, it is glued to a thick wooden base and the outside floorboards then added. Each floor piece had to be individually cut and laid - quite time consuming, but a nice detail. I primed everything in medium grey and added a light coat of flat white over it so some of the grey shows through for a weathered finish. I added the decals and washed everything with a black wash. The floorboards also got a dose of some black chalk to give them a slightly darker appearance than the stand, itself. I should note that the kit also comes with a separate, large billboard and some fencing which I did not use for the garden, but did assemble and use in another part of the layout.
The walkway edging between the "soil" and gravel walkway was made out of small popsicle sticks painted, glued and pressed into the foam layout. The "soil" is WS fine black cinder.
I didn't have any 1/4" wood stock handy, so I used three (3) pieces of leftover Gargarves track ties to make the sides and top of the "Victory Garden" sign base . I then cut out a piece of .060" styrene and painted it brown and glued it to the base; then printed out the wording for the sign on some sticker paper and affixed it to the styrene.
Added a faucet, hose, figures and cars to complete the scene. This would make a great long weekend project for anyone interested in creating this kind of vignette for their layout.
