- [Jason] The traffic usually whizzes by.

- People these days they just, they rush, rush, rush, rush.

- [Jason] But with roadwork happening just up the street on Sunset, drivers are slowing down.

- But when they see this yard, they stop and kind of look, you know what's going on over there.

- [Jason] They're taking notice of what's happening in Joe and Charlene Martin's front yard.

- When people stop for traffic, they're always looking at all of this stuff.

- [Jason] All of this stuff is one way of putting it because there's a little bit of everything here.

Just take a look.

From mailboxes and bowling balls to bicycles.

Electric saw blades with faces, even the hood from a seventies TransAm and lots and lots of old metal frame wheels.

- Yeah, I love old wheels because you gotta keep on rolling, you know, I don't care how old you are, you gotta keep rolling.

- [Jason] There's metal windmills, airplane wind turbines, the incredible Hulk, a rusty metal bed frame, all sorts of odd looking creatures.

And the robot from the sixties television series "Lost in Space."

- Danger Will Robinson, danger, no Will Robinson.

- [Jason] So many things that I'm not even sure what half of them are, let alone how to describe 'em.

- And this right here, oh, this is crazy.

- [Jason] What is that?

- That's a good question.

It's some kind of critter.

(chimes ringing) - [Jason] There's wind chimes in a wooden whale, racing tires and parking meters, metal grasshoppers and roosters, an old Charlotte Coliseum road sign, even some sort of metal muffler lady.

- Here's the pretty lady, I call her pretty lady, but she's not really too pretty.

But she's been through a lot of windstorms and hurricanes and got kind of fat lips.

A piece of drift would hit her in her lips one day.

- [Jason] Some might look at it and just call it a junkyard.

Others see art and beauty and tons of nostalgia.

- I think it gives them a flashback to the past, I really do.

- Because the world's the world.

You've got all kind of different things and a lot of times you have to go to a certain place to see 'em.

They come to this yard and see everything.

- And we've had two or three neighbors come by and say, we enjoy your yard every time we come through here.

And we come by here every day going to work.

- [Jason] Joe and Charlene have called this place home for nearly 25 years.

They had some of the stuff when they moved in, but since they did, they just kept accumulating.

- I went with him everywhere he would go, usually, buying this stuff and sometimes wondering, okay, where's he gonna put it?

- And this old boat, this right boat used to be on the river for about 30 or 40 years.

And this lady had, was fixing the junk it, sell it for junk.

And I, and me and my buddy got it and brought it here.

- [Jason] The collection actually started inside with a Native American theme.

There's wood carvings, pots, tapestry, knives, even iron arrows.

- I've been collecting Indian stuff for a long time and I started going to shows and meeting some people and they was collectors.

Back in their day, they would go out and dig for the stuff, get permits and go out and dig for it.

- He started bringing so many things.

He was using everything with a flat surface and I didn't have a place to put anything.

- [Jason] As the years went by, Joe started picking up more and more things.

And since he ran outta space inside, things started going outside.

- Flea markets, like I say, antique malls.

We go to Nashville once a year.

And a big one up there.

I mean, they have all kind of things up there.

- [Jason] There's so much stuff, not even the front yard could contain it all.

So it went around to the side where you'll find a boat motor, Colonel Sanders and a fence with a fishing theme.

- That's the fence of happiness.

- [Jason] The fence of happiness.

- Yeah.

- [Jason] Now why do you call it that?

- Because when people come out here, they get happy.

They're looking at each other.

"I remember that, where'd you get that?"

You know.

- [Jason] A sign out front says park here, and people often do.

One lady recently spent three hours roaming the yard.

Some ask if stuff is for sale, others want to drop things off.

- A man stopped one time out in the road and he looked like he was headed to the junkyard.

And I thought, oh gosh, what's he doing?

So I went out there and he wanted to leave off something.

He said, "I thought this was too good to go to the junkyard and it looks like that it could belong right in this yard.

Can I leave it off?"

I said, well go ahead and leave it.

Yeah and I think Joe would be okay with that.

- One day, this guy just, I found this in the yard.

He dropped off this old goat in the yard.

He said, my mom don't like that old goat.

'cause when she was a kid, it buttered her a lot of times, it scared her.

So she said, "will you please take it," So I took it.

- [Jason] One visitor even found a part to an old tractor he'd been searching for, the part had long ago been discontinued and he couldn't find it anywhere else.

- He said, "I'd like to buy it from you."

I said, nah.

He told him about it and I said, just keep it.

- [Jeff] Intermixed with all the stuff, there's a slew of plants and out back, there's a greenhouse full of cactuses.

- And that's the old man cactus right here.

- [Jason] The guy in the back?

- Yeah, he's about 35 years old.

- [Jason] Wow.

- Look, don't fall in love with the cactus.

You get stuck.

(laughs) And that's true.

- [Jason] Joe often gives visitors a plant as a way of saying thanks for stopping by.

- And I used to give 'em a little something.

I'd dig 'em up a plant or take 'em to greenhouse, give 'em a cactus or something like that.

You know, just, you know, try.

You gotta give something back.

You can't keep everything all the time.

- [Jason] Whether you call it a junk yard, an artistic garden, or anything else, Joe's goal in all this is simple to make people happy if even for the few seconds it takes to drive by.

- Right, it's worth it, I don't care.

You know where we go in life, you gotta give something back, a lot back.

You make people smile, you're doing a good job.

A smiles a lot better than a frown.

- [Jason] I bet even the chilling out alien along the front walk would agree.

For "Carolina Impact", I'm Jason Terzis reporting.