A Growing Antique Garden Tool Collection

By Sara Jordan-Heintz
Published on August 14, 2023
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by Sara Jordan-Heintz
Far right: large dibbers used to plant corn, beans and any of the larger vegetable seeds. To the left of the dibbers are the potato forks and sifters. The balls on the ends of the tines eliminate puncture wounds to the harvest and allow potatoes to be sifted out, leaving the soil in place. To the left of the potato forks is an assortment of forks used to turn over soil and work clay soils.

Landscape architect Mark K. Morrison is a pioneer in the green roof and infrastructure industry. Through his work, he has cultivated a passion for antique garden tools, amassing a collection of thousands of pieces.

Mark was born in Iowa, but his family relocated to Wisconsin soon after. He has resided in New York and Connecticut for the last 50 years. While he didn’t grow up on a farm, rural life influenced his interests.

“I used to visit my grandmother in Illinois and we would frequently visit Ellis Conklin’s farm between Wyanet and Princeton in the western part of the state,” he remembers. “My uncles had pig farms and my cousins showed pigs and sheep at county and state fairs, so I was exposed to farm life as a boy.”

His family had a cottage in northern Wisconsin on Manson Lake north of Tomahawk. While some young boys growing up in a rural setting might be found hunting or fishing, at age 14, Mark could be spotted driving back roads in a 1957 Volkswagen, stopping to dig up trees that he would replant on his family’s lake property.

Travels launch a collection of antique garden tools

As a student at Carroll College in Wisconsin, Mark considered a career in dentistry but soon changed his mind. “With fortuitous guidance from my high school guidance counselor, I transferred to the University of Wisconsin at Madison and earned a degree in landscape architecture in 1973, with an emphasis in horticulture and regional planning,” he says. “When I graduated, it was the early days of landscape architecture. I’ve been in the profession for 50 years.”

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