Recycling no secret in this couple’s garden

Land around the confluence of the Little Spokane River and the Spokane River is typical dry grassy forests backed by steep rocky hills. It’s not a place you’d look for a lush garden full of imaginative creations made from stuff most people haul to the dump.

But here on the acre they have lived on for 51 years, Kathy and Gordon Kaufman have developed a garden that is a testament to their scrounging ability and their creative use of found stuff, all glued together with well-tended perennials. Their garden is the June Garden of the Month for The Inland Empire Gardeners.

“We are recycle people. Everything we have is probably made from something we acquired from some place or somebody,” Kathy said.

That is evident on entering the Secret Garden, a cozy sitting area surrounded by tall panels decorated with Kathy Kaufman’s flower paintings. The panels began their life as stage props for a high school play and were salvaged by Gordon Kaufman when they were headed for the dump.

The Secret Garden opens onto a lush, shady backyard filled with more found and reworked treasures surrounded by hostas, ferns, roses and water features. Kathy Kaufman’s favorite place in the garden, the Spirit House, is here and serves as a retreat at the end of a busy day. Two old water wheels splash water gently nearby. Friends left both wheels leaning against their gate knowing Gordon Kaufman would find a way to use them.

It wasn’t until he retired 11 years ago that they really got the bug to rework the garden. After attending a local garden tour they were so fired up they were ready to take a bulldozer to the yard. “It ended up being a No. 2 shovel and two old backs,” Kathy Kaufman said. They have done all the work on the garden themselves.

Everywhere you turn there are bits of art, some painted by Kathy, others created by Gordon’s wood-rafting and still others from their son, a metal sculptor who owns Falcon Forge. Somehow, old chicken coops, sheds, doors, windows and satellite dishes become something magic in their hands.

A redwood hot tub and accompanying pool house offered by a friend became a grape arbor sitting space. Gordon sawed it in half and filled it with plants and trained grapes up the pool shelter.

The Kaufmans’ two grandchildren are the real winners in the garden. Gordon Kaufman has built each of them a rustic playhouse out of salvaged wood and found objects. Their 7-year-old granddaughter has a fully equipped play kitchen complete with a miniature wood stove, living room and bedroom, all built by Grandpa and decorated by Grandma..

If all this wasn’t enough, the Kaufmans have built a summer house right on the edge of the Little Spokane River that could have come straight out of “Wind in the Willows.” You almost expected Toad to show up in his boat. The cool breeze makes it the perfect place to enjoy a summer meal.