Metal elements add contrast, interest in gardens

METAL IS cold, heavy, sometimes sharp, and always hard. So why does such a slick, rigid material look so flat-out great in gardens?

It was only a search for low-budget, durable, utilitarian materials that led me to using hog wire and galvanized metal in my garden. But now the shiny metal gate, troughs and wire screens are favorite garden elements. They introduce sheen into the mix, stand out as architectural pieces in winter, and in summer disappear beneath foliage and flowers.

Several big, black steel crows have made an appearance lately in Langley gardens, reminding me of the unexpected affinity between metal and nature. There must be more to it than just the yin and yang of steel and plant. So I tracked down metal artist Tim Leonard, the man responsible for the shadowy crows, as well as a number of other metal structures livening up public and private gardens on south Whidbey Island.

A sheet-metal worker by trade and an artist by nature, Leonard got started when his uncle put him to work in a boatbuilding shop at age 13. After high school, Leonard started work in a metal shop. "I already had the hands for it and the work ethic," he explains. He quickly moved into doing custom work rather than anything routine.

Leonard lights up when he talks about the year he worked on Seattle's Experience Music Project. He loved crafting a building without any right angles. "I got a crew of 12 and all the crazy jobs," he says of the long hours and intense creativity involved in fabricating such an original structure.

Leonard now has his own metal-making business with an eclectic range of clients, from the local school district and Whidbey Telecom to coffee shops and artists. He's cladding part of Freeland's new phone-company building in rusty metal, and has fabricated a hot-rolled steel coffee de-stoner (a big, shiny machine that removes debris left in with the roasted beans). Leonard's first job on Whidbey was gardening at the Hedgebrook writers' retreat, and his knowledge of plants shows in his outdoor structures. He recently crafted a 12-foot-long arbor of three-fourths-inch steel rods, strong enough to shore up even the most devouring of wisteria vines.

So what kind of metal holds up best out there in the garden year-round? Leonard prefers thicker steel over sheet metal, because it takes so much longer to develop a rusty patina. He recently collaborated with Byron Moffett of the Cottage Garden on a steel retaining wall in the garden of Richard Andrews and Colleen Chartier. Leonard used ship plate (the hull parts from old ships) from Island Recycling. He hand-forged new rivets and overlapped the pitted old plate to form a uniquely handsome wall. Because the plates have held up in saltwater for 40 years or so, expectations are high for the metal's continued durability.

"I tend toward using creative rather than technical means in my work, so there's more feeling and expressiveness," says Leonard. He often arrives at a job with plans in his head and a bunch of steel rods in his truck, then gets to work bending and welding on site. "Every space has its own impact on me," he explains. Inspired by organic forms, most of Leonard's railings and arbors undulate like an inert version of the vine tendrils soon to curl about them.

"Rusty metal has a long-term, non-permanence about it . . . kind of like life," concludes Leonard, revealing why metal so perfectly complements our living gardens. See more of Leonard's work at www.heavymetalworks.com.

Valerie Easton is a Seattle freelance writer and author of "The New Low-Maintenance Garden." Check out her blog at www.valeaston.com.