Garden art to warm up the yard?

By Nicole DeCosta

The West Linn Tidings, Oct 30, 2008, Updated Oct 30, 2009

The yard is lush and garnished with pieces Dave Froode finds and fixes up. He found this swinging chair at an estate sale.

Vern Uyetake / West Linn Tidings

ADVERTISEMENTS

Scrap metal. Wood columns. Headboards. Old signs. Broken fences. Old red painted barn walls.You name it and it’s probably in Dave and Dianne Froode’s yard.

Walking onto their riverfront property in West Linn is like walking onto a movie set. There’s stuff everywhere, yet it’s extremely organized — almost like a museum.

Need a wrench or some nuts and bolts? That’s in the metal cabinet past the garage. How about bed posts or a headboard? Those are tucked within the beams in the garage. A watering can? On the steps. Magazine rack? In the front near chairs, bird houses and wheel barrels.

But what is all this stuff for? To create art to decorate gardens.

“We generally put things in our yard that you don’t see on every street corner,” Dave said.

Through their company, Frody O Dough Garden Art, unique garden art crafted by the Froodes is sold at seasonal bizarres and through contract work. Nearly all of the materials used to construct the pieces are recycled, picked up at estate sales or given from other artists.

A portion of a wide plank, wooden fence is displayed on their driveway amid floral arrangements and a drinking fountain.

“It hides our garbage cans,” Dianne said.

And it came from the Firestone auto store in Lake Oswego. One day Dave saw a mechanic with a crowbar and hammer trying to take down the fence to replace it.

“I said, ‘tell you what, I’ll take down your fence and haul it away if you give me an oil change,’” Dave said.

Next to this display on the driveway stands a tall pillar from the West Linn High School remodel.

“They were just trashing it,” Dave said. “I picked up the pieces.”

And Dave has picked up pieces from all over North America for more than a decade, repurposing items that may otherwise have ended up in a junk yard or already were. Then, Dianne cleans them up and Dave works his magic.

“I don’t have to know how I’m going to use it, but I know it’s got potential,” Dave said of choosing items to take home. “That trim came from Rite Aid in Oregon City. It’s fir, six-inch trim board.”

A cabinet in the garage was found in Sellwood during a dinner outing with friends.

“After dinner I said, ‘I’ve got to go look at that thing,” Dave said. “It’s free. That’s just how it happens.”

Dave added new cabinet doors to the tall furniture piece.

“Someone will buy it, and it’ll have a new life,” he said. “I’d probably ask $175 for it.”

The side of the yard is a holding area for all materials — scrap metal, tools, eight-foot-tall columns — needing to be made into a new creation.

1 | 2 Next Page >>