Monday, March 11, 2013

A plethora of yard art



Over the years we bought a lot of yard art at shows.  Our first shows were small, local.  Size and weight did not matter. Poured concrete pigs and lambs came to live in the garden.  We found some poured resin and pebble pots, too, that still flank the front steps.  The best piece was the barn stone watering dish, with the heart depression chiseled into the stone.

Several years in we met a couple of women welders from Kentucky.  Their forms were big and graceful, and we just had to have a wisteria trellis that was a wisteria.  It’s beautiful.  When the wisteria attacked the house we tore it out and substituted clematis.  That project is only a few years old and the clematis has covered some of the seven foot trellis.

One year in Michigan my booth was across the aisle from a phenomenal artist from Minnesota.  He welded fantastical flights of imagination.  At the end of the show he had one piece left, which I can only describe as an elderflower.  It sways in any breeze at the end of its seven foot stalk.  He kindly sold it to me for a pittance.  I tried to contact him only a few months later, intent on purchasing more, but mail was returned, no such number, no such name.  Artists can be like that.

So, the wisteria and the elderflower grace opposite ends of the front garden.  That is a very loose term; in twenty five years it is scarcely improved from the backfill pit that occurred when the addition was built.  We’ve occasionally discussed digging out the rubble and putting in dirt.  Right.  The few plants we’ve established are saved by the weed eater a few times each year.

Last Christmas we attended a local show and I found some copper cattails to go with my elderflower, by an artist from Wisconsin.  We even planted them before the ground froze.  Then, a few weeks ago, I found another Wisconsinite at another local show.  This metal yard art is now so common it is mass produced and the “artist” is merely a reseller.  But I liked this fellow’s assembly work.   We figured out how to get all I bought into the back seat of Jan’s car.

All my new sculptures stayed in the garage until yesterday.  The sun shone.  The temperature climbed to near sixty.  We went out and planted the new metal.




New stuff on the left; my elderflower on the right


To the pet store for bird seed


Filling the feeder flower


There were chickadees and nuthatches all morning...until the rain started at noon today.


21 comments:

  1. I love yard art too. The arbor sounds wonderful. Wisteria is a big pain and I no longer have any either. I wish I could send you some Lady Banks roses I am now rooting from my large specimens. Sometimes I fear I am going to be the crazy lady "with all that stuff in the yard" if you know what I mean and I think you do.

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  2. I do love yard art,but here they would be easy targets for bands of thieving raccoons.
    Jane x

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  3. The yard art looks good the feeder flower is interesting but I really like the the elderflower the best.
    I too have wisteria but it's in a strong and very big pot a long way from the house, I have been warned how harmful it can be.
    Merle......

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  4. Oh.....what wonderful stuff. I congratulate you.....great choices. I envy you, but I have had to tie my ankle to the chair to keep me from acquiring one more thing. More power to you.
    Love, Lo

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  5. Absolutely love the elder flower; I love yard art don't have much now, but at my lavender gardens I had plenty of pieces.

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  6. I love yard art and you have some great examples. I tend to concrete...two gargoyle like figures, a foo dog that protected the shop when we still lived in the city house. We would have to warn people to watch out for him cause he would bite the unwary. Also a nude that had been a fountain, a little naked boy with a fig leaf that holds a dish on his head, a small bunny and a Buddha (my newest acquisition). Also two large contemporary pieces from local artists, one metal and the other constructed of tree limbs and branches. I want something kinetic now.

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  7. I am also a fan of yard art. I love the whimsy of it all.my gardens are dotted with all kinds of little creatures and flowers that are lit with th warmth of the sun.

    I love, love, love your feeder flower.

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  8. How lovely! And a good day's work by all.

    Is that a toad house I see in the bottom photo?

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  9. I like the feeder flower! Too cute! I bet it will be a hit for the birds when the weather is nicer!!! Great yard art you have too!

    betty

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  10. Hi Joanne, the flower feeder is lovely! Chickadees and nuthatches are sweet birds, I am sure they appreciate the bird seed.

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  11. I love it. The feeder flower is gorgeous, but the elder flower is very, very special indeed. We have some yard art - and I would like more. Much more. Our wisteria was strangled by a banskia rose. I thought that it was gone for good, but it has started to reappear. The banskia rose is still going strong, so it will probably be another fight to the death.

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  12. What a nice way to spend a Spring Day!

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  13. planting metal - good approach not insects or rodents to worry about.

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  14. I love the feeder flower!
    I'm wary of yard art and things like that. I'd like to have some, if I had the space for it, but in the past when I've mentioned that I like something, I somehow end up with way too much and none of it that I've chosen myself. I'm leaving the gardens around my flat completely alone for now. Not mentioning bird baths and feeders to anyone at all. Just searching quietly on my own for just the right thing.

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  15. The elderflower looks very elegant there

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  16. I love the flower!

    I live in a very artistic neighborhood in Minneapolis. Our "Art-A-Whirl" is coming in May -- plenty of opportunity to buy art (both affordable and not!), hit the garage sales, sit outside.

    I can hardly wait.

    Pearl

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  17. That stuff is just FUN! Plus yard art like that is a sure cure for winter blahs and a good start on Spring Flowers.

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  18. That bird feeder is lovely - such a good idea and beautiful looking too.

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  19. We have been trying to persuade clematis to grow for years now with no success at all. I might just change my plan and put my efforts into buying garden sculpture - yours looks great.

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  20. so cool---i love art and esp. yard art----and oh how i love love love wisteria and clematis!

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  21. New plantings not bothered by frost or sudden late snow! Beautiful.

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