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Northwest Living By Valerie Easton
A Space In TimeIn the woods, a shed garden gives back a delightful piece of the past
IT WAS A weathered old shed that attracted Ottie and Clara Ladd to the spot along Gravelly Lake, south of Tacoma. These enthusiastic collectors knew a potential museum when they saw one. The shed lies at the heart of the Ladds' wooded property, filled with antique garden paraphernalia and Colonel Sanders memorabilia. Ottie Ladd managed Kentucky Fried Chicken franchises around the Northwest for 30 years, explaining the portly Colonel Sanders weathervane presiding over the garden, his arms wrapped in clematis, lilies blooming on his shoulders. While most of the Ladds' land is a sophisticated, shady acre of strolling trails and naturalistic plantings, the "shed garden" is their place to have fun, enriched as it is by the gregarious couple's cross-country, antique-gathering binges. The lively plantings, kinetic whirligigs and vintage vignettes combine for an artful display of nostalgia. It all began a few years ago when Ottie and Clara took what they call their "roots trip" to Kentucky and Oklahoma to meet each other's families before getting married. They stopped into shops in all the little towns along the way and began buying antique metal watering cans. They're attracted to the form and functionality of these long-spouted, curvaceous cans, now hanging by the dozens along one wall of the shed. The cans were the first step in the couple's slide down the slippery slope into collecting mania. Smart ways to display collectibles • Avoid the temptation to break up collections. Even old watering cans look like a gallery display when filling a wall from ground to gutter. • Arrange objects according to use rather than color or material. A fan of edgers, circle of scythes and even a row of potato planters appear artful when grouped. • Plants set off metal and sculptural shapes. The Ladds train vines up and around objects, and grow hostas and ornamental grasses alongside implement displays. • For maximum effect, don't scatter collectibles all over the garden. Most of the Ladds' garden is naturalistic, a respite from the highly decorative shed garden. Ottie has trained a weeping Alaskan blue cedar (Chamaecyparis nootkatensis 'Glauca') to frame the gate into the shed garden. A hoe tethered to the gate hints at the displays inside, where old implements from Ottie's childhood farm are arrayed in a pinwheel shape against the shed wall, and a rusty pump spills water into a little pool. A claw-footed bathtub drips impatiens. Although it's only a couple of years old, the garden has an aged feel due to all the history it holds. "Ottie never throws anything away," laughs Clara. Her own passion for red permeates the garden, in roses, impatiens and begonias as well as lipstick-bright metal chairs and a fleet of little red wagons. The old implements are grouped by purpose, except where they're put to good use. Long-handled tools stuck into the ground support climbing roses, while rusty rakes replace fence posts. A spray of skinny metal edgers ("the original weed-eaters," Ottie points out), a row of potato planters and a circle of scythes are turned into three-dimensional art by their precise arrangements. The repetition of hoe, clipper and shovel shapes creates a visible rhythm through the garden, rendering these familiar forms freshly eye-catching. "We like little surprises tucked here and there," says Clara, understating the artistry that lends the garden so much personality, as well as humor and history. Whirligigs twirl overhead, chickadees duck in and out of the birdhouses, the Colonel Sanders weathervane stands guard. The Ladds often entertain in the garden; you can tell by the wine corks scattered among the crunchy hazelnut shells carpeting pathways. Clara is quick to point out that a great many guests have contributed to their cork collection. Valerie Easton is a author of "A Pattern Garden." Her e-mail address is valeaston@comcast.net. Mike Siegel is a Seattle Times staff photographer.
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