Home Ground
Elm Grove, WI

This property has always been a place to play with plants. To come to know plants, their growth rate, habit and form. How they live, grow, change and die in community with each other. To appreciate them in all seasons throughout the year and their lives. This is the garden at my parent's home.

While the garden is largely my mom's it has provided me opportunities to create a border and experiment in covering the ground with plants to create healthy, dynamic communities that require less maintenance.

It is also the place I came to understand and appreciate what I call "Legacy Plants" or plants with cultural, historical and personal interest to people. They may be relatively common but they have intense personal history attached to them. In the case of my parents, these are plants that have been passed down over the generations from their parents and grandparents. Irises and peonies have become integral to an otherwise naturalistic, ecological design.