
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SUNDAY, April 3, 1994                   TAG: 9404200068
SECTION: GUIDE TO BETTER HOMWES AND LAWN & GARDEN                    PAGE: 2   EDITION: NEW RIVER 
SOURCE: JOANNE ANDERSON
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

USE ANTIQUES TO ENHANCE LANDSCAPE

It's hard to tell sometimes which antiques have been placed in the yard as part of the landscaping plan and which ones just got forgotten in place.

Antiques can dramatize a landscape or simply add a country touch. Old containers are especially useful for placing flowers and foliage at just the right spot. Wagon wheels, milk cans, barrels and cauldrons with flowers around them are probably part of the homeowner's outdoor design. Combines and farm machinery rusting away in an overgrown area most likely were replaced with newer equipment one year and are resting near their last job or out of the way.

"Columns from old buildings are gaining in popularity as an outdoor decoration," said Roscoe Cox, Pulaski Main Street director. "People are making them part of their gardens, especially formal ones like an English boxwood garden." Wood shutters from old houses are being used to create garden sections.

Cox also stated that old wrought iron pieces are being brought outside, either on patios or in the yard. One piece he feels is attractive outside is the old oxen yokes. People put them on the side of a barn or garage, others rest in the yard.

Old wagons and wagon wheels give a nice country flavor, even to a yard in town. Water pumps can be used as mailbox posts or stand alone with flowers around the base. Antique mud scrapers, bird baths or antiques that can be used to hold a bird's bath, weather vanes and odd plow handles make nice accent pieces.

Eugene Payton, retired Montgomery County school principal, said people buy antique appliances and electrify them for the yard. Railroad lanterns and memorabilia are also interesting landscape pieces, he said. Even a hand operated wooden barrel washing machine he thought would make an interesting outdoor conversation piece.

Caring for antiques that will be in the yard is extremely important because of their exposure to heat and sun, wind, rain and temperature fluctuations. Payton recommends putting a good sealer on any exposed wood. On a wagon wheel, for example, sealer should be applied to every spoke.

If an item will be painted, a good primer coat should go under the paint. Enamel and outdoor paints are best for pieces that will sit outside.

A metal antique should be covered with a Rustoleum type of primer product to deter rusting. Many people then paint metal antiques over the primer coat.

A common decoration in yards now, Cox has observed, is a pole with an old wagon wheel on top and old-timey gourds hanging off it. "Gourds are finding a real place in the antique market," he said.

There are crocks and jugs, milk cans, old kettles and wagon wheels still to be found at reasonable prices. The architectural features and columns are a bit more pricey. Old tractors and machinery are expensive and pretty hard to find, since so many people collect, restore and show them.

But treasures are out there that will enhance your landscape and can be creatively displayed with flowers, ornamental grasses and climbing vines.

by CNB