BRINGING CHARM TO THE FARM

Meet a Washington-state artist who has revamped a run-down 1920s farm into a garden paradise that’s abundant with painted barns, cascading flowers and creatively repurposed containers.

A Washington-state artist revamps a ramshackle 1920s farm into a garden paradise that’s teeming with brightly painted outbuildings, cascading flowers and cleverly repurposed containers.

Scott and Jona Thomson built this garage/ artist workshop themselves, following Scott’s design. Electric barn doors are topped with white trellis panels to break up the building’s face. Red paint unifies the barn with the couple’s home at left and the garden shed and donkey barn on the adjacent hillside. A yew hedge and evergreen topiaries flank the entry, reiterating the miniature evergreens found in the window box overhead. A wooden American flag crowns the barn’s cupola.

It took a lot of vision for artist Jona Thomson and her husband, Scott, to believe they could transform the mud- and trash-filled area around a dilapidated 1920s farmhouse in McCleary, Washington, into a lush garden retreat. But they did just that by using myriad recycled goods and materials to create whimsical outbuildings, decorations and planters.

“Scott doesn’t even have to ask anymore when he sees a barn sale, free pile, or stuff lying on the side of the road,” says Jona with a laugh. “We’ll even take back roads just to see what we can find.”

The Thomsons used cost-saving techniques to construct various outbuildings, including Jona’s shop assembled from salvaged barnwood. “We even reused old bent nails by hammering them straight!” she recalls. The couple also built an amazing garage/artist studio that Scott designed.

Even bare spots can inspire Jona’s creativity, such as the area beneath a large crab apple tree that was calling out for color. “I’ll drag plants over, experiment with shade-loving flowers like impatiens to provide color that literally spills out of two old washtubs,” she shares.

Although color, texture and beauty are important components of the landscape, utility also plays a significant role. When adding a patio off the only original outbuilding— the pump house—Jona turned an old sink into a handy spot to wash hands, vegetables and even the dog!

Jona holds barn sales that feature her handiwork, which includes garden art and containers fashioned from vintage finds that inspire others to adorn their outdoor spaces with one-of-a-kind recycled decor. Today, her motto of reuse, recycle, renew has a deeper meaning—turning others’ trash into beautiful accents that might just benefit the earth, too.

Photographed by BLACKSTONEEDGE.COM Written by DONNA PIZZI

Left: An old claw-foot tub once used as a pasture trough for the former owner’s cows now serves as a water garden alongside the house. A tube inserted in a pipe is attached to a watering can spout. A fountain pump, its cord buried in the soil, recirculates water to the pond plants, fuchsia, floating baubles and verdigris frog in the tub. The black ladder leaning against the house acts as a trellis for tomato vines.

Above: A few of Jona’s favorite vintage farm tools are displayed on the front porch of the couple’s home. To hold the heavy pitchfork, wire baskets and metal items, Jona built her own peg rail using a hefty 2 x 4 with drilled holes and wood dowels. A concrete-coated shovel featuring a nubbly veneer adds to the layered vignette. Jona’s homemade ivy topiary is planted in a vintage enamel bucket that sits in an enamel pan. By cutting a circular hole in a beloved barn-sale table, the base of the top-heavy topiary rests safely below the tabletop.