Published: July 10, 2009 12:21 am      

WILSON: Cheapskate gardening pays rich dividends

Recycling’s the rule of (green) thumb for Wilson gardeners

WILSON — What transpires when a couple of recycling nuts get together?

Three acres of incredibly clever landscaping.

There’s no Wilson Garden Tour this year, so Randy and Rosemary Kroening are hosting their own one-lot public tour Saturday and Sunday. They’re pretty eager to show off the “village” they’ve been sprouting at 3216 Wilson-Cambria Road the past few years.

Next to their house, the Kroenings have developed a not-so-miniature version of a late 19th century town, inspired partly by one of Randy Kroening’s favorite TV shows, “Little House on the Prairie.”

First, there’s Rosie’s Hotel & Bar, with a facade so convincing people have actually stopped seeking room and board.

Around the corner from it, the Bank of IOYU and R&R Mercantile are open for business.

The Little Red Schoolhouse is in session, too; inside the building, past a single, old-style pupil’s desk and a chalkboard showing the day’s lesson, a naughty schoolboy stands in the corner. Perhaps the better-behaved pupils are out playing in the Barnyard, the horse barn or the Garden Shed.

All of the buildings are real; either they’re existing old structures brought onto the property or they’re built from old barns.

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And they’re all surrounded by flower beds holding a surprise planting or two. Wherever you look, you’ll see daylilies and hosta, moonflowers, daisies or trumpet flowers, succulents and vines are the colorful companions of ... antiques.

Here’s a rusty bicycle resting against a shade tree. There’s a kitchen sink turned into a fountain. Whoa, is that a thrashing machine poking out of the Jerusalem artichoke?

“I go a little overboard sometimes,” Randy Kroening says, laughing. “I don’t have any control.”

“It’s a lot of fun seeing what new things we can come up with using people’s throw-aways,” Rosemary explains.

Randy, a designer with Kitchen World, and Rosemary, a secretary at Mount St. Mary’s Hospital, have been working on their eccentric version of Eden since they were married seven years ago.

Love of gardening is infectious, apparently. When his first wife died, Randy said he was determined to simply maintain the couple of beds she’d established. Then, once he proved to himself that he could, his mind started drifting to new and unusual landscape schemes, complete with accessories. Rosemary caught the bug from him.

“It all started when I wanted a rusty bicycle,” Randy said. “I went out looking ... and found an old thrasher.”

“Yeah,” Rosemary said, “and now we’ve got everything, even the kitchen sink.”

Randy says everything he plants at the Kroening homestead, perennial, annual or antique, has to have been free or cheap. Most of the greenery is from in-house division and trades with other gardeners. The accessories are the fruits of Randy’s hard bargaining at garage and estate sales.

His affection for odd, vintage stuff is so well known now, Rosemary says, “we get calls from people who’ll say, ‘You can have this hunk of junk for nothing, as long as you’re willing to get it out of here for me.’”

The Kroenings’ home has been in Randy’s family since 1909, a fact they mark in the “cemetery” behind the Little Red Schoolhouse. Fake headstones name every owner and the year he or she took the deed.

There’s another tribute to Kroening family heritage going up on the “North Forty” now. On a large expanse of grassy area north of the house, four beds of ancient, iron-spoke wheeled things have popped up. A tractor, a wagon, a corn binder, dump rake, plow and cultivator are giants beside young plants, all the stuff of Randy’s fond memories of growing up on a dairy farm.

“It’s in my blood,” he says. “Give me an old farm machine and I have to do something with it. Why not something a little bit different?”

The Kroening gardens will be open for public touring from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday and Sunday. Admission is free; refreshments will be served.