Barb Tomoson’s front yard is a beautiful garden that features various elements that add character and charm to the space. At the fence, an old wooden ladder serves as a decorative piece that blends perfectly with the surroundings. The garden also features a bar coupala, which provides an elegant touch to the landscape. The shingle sheer and stacked rocks add texture and visual interest to the yard, making it a delightful spot to admire. The combination of natural elements and vintage pieces creates a unique and inviting ambiance that is a true reflection of Barb’s style and taste.
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– Barb, how did you make your fence? – It is actually made out of an old wooden ladder in Alberta. There’s a brush pile north of town that we can haul, haul our fallen branches and things too. And we hauled branches out one day and lo
And behold, here was this huge double ladder. And of course I told Glen right away, I said I want that ladder. And he looked at me like I was crazy. He, and he’s got a short box on his pickup and then it kind of teetered and wobbled all the way home.
But we got it here. We did cut it to, you know, to make the corners. But otherwise, yeah, it’s just, it’s just an old wooden ladder. And the posts I got from my brother at the farm site where I grew up with those, we put in
And I have another gate on the other side of this campus grass. And that actually belonged to a lady who was a postmaster in Alberta for many years. And after she passed away then I was able to acquire that and, and, and the fence lights up. They’re solar lights
So they light up when it gets dark and it really is pretty. I like it. And on the, we have a solar light that’s actually strapped to the tree and so that sheds light on just the, just the kilo. And that actually came from south of Starbuck
Little horse on top came from a garage sale that I don’t think I paid very much for and he just fit right in the hall. So he’s been there ever since. – Barb, what is that metal thing there? – That’s what’s called a shear and they used it to cut shingles.
I can’t imagine running a machine like that for hours on end. I, it’s, it’s terribly, terribly heavy for one thing and it was bolted to a rotted log. – I love this stone bird bath. – We bought them at a garage sale. I don’t know who made them, but we always tease everything.
I had glass in the yard, either got hit with something from the lawnmower or the kids playing, so I knew this one. They probably wouldn’t get away with that. So we’ve had this one for quite a while and in fact I have the matching pedestal for the mailbox.
But of course we don’t use the mailbox part. We put a bird house on the ledge that the mailbox is supposed to sit on the top actually comes off of it. It is two pieces it seems to hold up – Well speaking of stones. Yes. Have you gotten
Into stacking stones or what? Oh – Those actually every year my mother’s family, the Murphy family has a family reunion and my mother grew up south of Morris and I have a cousin that still lives on the farm site and one year he brought this stack of rocks to the reunion.
They weren’t a stack, it was just rocks he said on the counter. And for a dollar we could put in weight of the total weight of the rocks, your – Guess? – Yes, whatever we thought they weighed, anybody could do it. And first place got like half the pot, half the money
That was collected and I don’t remember what second and third was, but fourth place got the rocks and I got the rocks and there they are. So it’s kind of fun to have ’em there just ’cause I know they’re from original homesteaded land in Stevens County, so,
But it was kind of funny, they all laughed at me when I got the rocks and I was actually kinda happy. – And then what is that? I assume it’s an antique that’s sitting close to the rocks. – Oh yes. That’s a, A sharpener. Yeah, it was used to sharpen your knives
Or sickle blades, whatever you needed to sharpen stones in a little bit tough shape. And it, some of the pieces are missing, there’s petals on it that makes the wheel turn and it, I think every farm place probably had one at one time to use to sharpen all their tools.
And this little one right by the yellow cone flowers, that is a butterfly, but it’s got, it’s all made of silverware and there’s one bolt I think in it. Otherwise it’s knives and the handle from the knives and a few things. So that’s just kind of fun to have out here.
And he’s rusting as well. Resting and rusting. – You know, I see a lot of beautiful plants back over on the east side of your house. Yes. What is that? – That is actually a rain garden that we had with the help of soil conservation service that we put that in
And it’s pretty maintenance free. We, we did have to thin down some of the grasses because it got quite, they started to spread. It really attracts butterflies, although I haven’t seen a lot of them yet this year I’m hoping to see lots more. It grows really well.
And it was in a, a cost share program and they put in what they thought was best for there and butterfly weed that was absolutely gorgeous in there. This year it was just beautiful orange and it was so thick in there. But of course now that’s done. Now we’re onto different ones, but,
– So why was it placed there? – Well, it’s probably the, one of the most open areas in the yard and it collects the water. It’s lower in the center and so if it rains hard, the water will collect there and go down slowly versus it raining, you know,
Raining right beside your house and unfortunately maybe hitting to your basement and it seems to work fine. – How do you take care of that in the fall and in the spring? – Well, in the, we leave it for fall because there’s milkweed in there that,
And there’s seeds on some of the grasses, but the birds feed off of, and in the spring we burn it off, we burn it all off and that seems to really clean it up well and then it, it just comes back from there. – So after seeing your beautiful yard
And your beautiful plants, do you have some favorite plants? – Well, probably one of my favorites is the, is the cone flowers. I really enjoy them. I really like the butterfly bush and I have been able to kind of get them to come back. They’re not normally supposed
To come back in Minnesota ’cause it gets too cold. So I’ve started stacking bags of mulch, the bag and all just piling them on at over the top and I’ve gotten several of them to come back. So that’s kind of fun. They take off a little faster than,
Than just buying one and putting it in the ground. But they do pretty well. But, and I like those because they do attract butterflies and they smell so pretty.
2 Comments
Such pretty gardens and cool yard art pieces!
The coolest garden.