Garden Replica of Childhood Farm
I had always wanted a flower and vegetable garden combined with memories of the farm where I was raised. A while back, after visiting the farm, now owned by a first cousin and his wife, my husband and I decided it would be fun to build a replica of the old red barn, built in the 1900s, as well as the railroad bridge that was located nearby.
My husband constructed the barn and bridge, and then I painted and placed the doors on the barn, the tracks on the bridge, and the steam locomotive on top of the bridge. As a child, we had a windmill with a stock tank, dogs, cats, cows, chickens, sunflowers, and a Chevy pickup similar to the ones we used in our garden. My grandma, who owned the farm before my parents bought it, farmed with horses and a hay wagon, so we added those as well.
My husband also built a model of the gray bench we used to sit on when we were kids, as well as a red, white, and blue bench for the inspirational area. I searched thrift stores to find just the right things to put in the garden.
Every time I go to the garden and see the setting we’ve created, childhood memories flow through my mind as I remember the great times we had living on the farm, and all the fun we kids had playing in the barn and on the bridge.
Joan
Hays, Kansas
