Joanne Kempinger Demski June 10, 2021 Source: Special to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Unsplash, Rajiv Bajaj
When Cyndy Allen got bit by the gardening bug about 10 years ago, she started making changes to the green spaces around her home.
First she tackled the front of her Oak Creek home, adding a freestanding waterfall that she then surrounded by plants. Then came a retaining wall, a walkway with a stream under it, and a pond for fishing; all accented with flowers.
After that, she began making changes to other areas; carving out more garden beds where grass was once dominant.
Since she started gardening, she hasn’t been able to stop. Today, lush gardens yield constant color on her 2-acre property.
Her spaces — both sunny and shady — are so striking that the folks who put on the yearly South Milwaukee Historical Society Garden Tour asked her to participate in their June 19 tour this year, even though she doesn’t live in South Milwaukee.
Allen, who is retired but worked as a registered nurse, said she began making changes to her yard on a large scale after she retired and her children left the nest. Today, she said, her spaces are a reflection of her personality.
“My garden is sort of like me, it’s eclectic. It’s a little bit of this and a little bit of that. I like a lot of different kinds of plants,” she said.
Because her husband, Will Allen, former CEO of Growing Power in Milwaukee, dislikes grass, it also made sense.
“He dislikes cutting grass, so he encouraged me. He said, ‘Let's have more flowers.’ But it was me doing all the work, as he was busy with his businesses,” she said. Cyndy Allen said when they built their solar passive home in 1982, they owned 50 acres behind it and 40 acres across the road. The property, all farmland, was once owned by her parents.
Then, a busy working mother of three, family and work were her priorities, so she planted a few shrubs and Will farmed the land. The couple have three adult children; two daughters and one son, and five grandsons.
They eventually sold most of the land, so when she ended up with more time on her hands she dug in.
Over the years she worked with landscape professionals who did the big projects, such as building retaining walls and ponds. She planted a wide variety of trees and added his and her sheds and a large greenhouse.
“The gardens began spreading, I probably did one big area a year, but I also enhanced areas I already had,” she said.
Enhancing the growth of her spaces have been plants' tendency to multiply and her affection for plant sales and garden centers, she said.
“You buy one daylily and before you know it you have six, and you have to find a place for them … and if you love plants you love to go to garden centers and plant sales, and then you buy more plants, but you have to find places to put them too,” she said.
Gardens on the property — which she describes as being like little rooms — include one alongside their detached garage. Gardens surround both sheds and a greenhouse, and large gardens are along fences erected for privacy and to keep Annabelle, their French mastiff, safe.
One of their largest gardens is behind their home. There she added large limestone retaining walls that are elevated, a fountain, areas to sit in, and a large pathway that leads to the side of the house.
The gardens all have different looks, but they are mostly casual, she said. One garden along the driveway is “semi-wild,” she said.
“I planted wildflowers and native plants. They have a certain beauty of their own. I planted them to encourage pollinators. The birds planted milkweed for me and I planted iris, daylilies, peonies, chives, phlox, goldenrod, aster and evergreen shrubs. I tried to plant things the bees and other pollinators are attracted to,” she said. She also added a French potager garden along her driveway that her daughter, Erika Allen of Chicago, helped with.
“In a potager garden you mix flowers, herbs and vegetables together. It’s an assortment of different plants,” she said. Plants in the space includes chard, basil, patchouli, mint, thyme, cat mint, rosemary, tomatoes, calabaza squash, shrimp plants, lettuces, cabbages and nasturtiums.
Throughout her spaces fieldstone was used extensively and pavers were recycled. “Fieldstones are a product of the farm fields we had access to, and I’ve used it everywhere in the gardens. When Will was farming he would come across these boulders, and I would take them and use them because I like rocks,” she said.
She recently recycled pavers in her yard that came from the original retaining wall at the front of her house when it was redone.
“The retaining wall was starting to cave in. I’m not sure why. We just recently had to have it redone, and they couldn’t reuse the pavers, so I used them to create a new retaining walk in an area that was originally a berm.
She recently talked about her love of gardening and the upcoming garden tour.
Question: Is your home close to South Milwaukee? Answer: Yes, we are about a block away.
Q: What is the style of your home? A: It’s a split-level, cedar-sided home that’s rustic and contemporary in style.
Q: Do you have any grass left at all? A: Now we have small areas of grass near the pond, a little in front, and a little grassy area in the back.
Q: What are the challenges to maintaining a space this large? A. I try not to use any pesticides, so I’m constantly having to weed and mulch. It’s time consuming. And sometimes I get an invasion of different weeds. I recently had a problem with bine weed. Also just keeping up appearances; deadheading things and moving them around. It can be a little on the daunting side. But it’s fresh air and exercise.
Q. Was there someone who influenced you in your gardening? A: I’m a big fan of Martha Stewart. I remember when I was working and one of the nurses brought in one of her magazines. I could not believe the gardening she did. I thought it was amazing. She had a big influence on me. Also my Polish grandmother. She always had a beautiful garden.
Q: Did you ever think you would garden on that level? A: I didn’t think I would ever end up being that avid of a gardener. But it’s a wonderful pastime. I’m blessed to be able to do it. Not everybody has the land, or maybe the inclination.
Q: What are some of your favorite plants? A: Oriental lilies, all different kinds of hydrangeas, bee balm, love in a mist, anemones, ranunculus, lilacs, peonies, poppies, zinnias, baptisia and dahlias.
Q: Do you compost? A: Yes. We have large compost piles and also a worm depository.
Q: Does anyone fish in the pond? A. Yes, Will likes to fish. We wanted to add it so he could fish when he felt like it. When he worked he was always busy and sometimes he would run out there in the morning and fish for 15 to 20 minutes. Now he uses it more often. The pond is about 200 feet by 50 feet. Right now he has perch in it and he plans to add catfish. Our grandsons all like to fish too, and they like doing it together. Of course I had to put plants around the pond. Some of the things I planted were catnip, cardinal plant, smoke bush, and I plan to add some water lilies.
Q: What are some examples of flowers you added to some of your other gardens? A: For a garden at the side of the house by the shed I put penstemon, phlox, prairie grass, helenium, cardinal flower, rudbeckia, mock orange bush, butterfly bush, columbine, and annuals too, like marigolds and dianthus. In a garden at the back of the house I planted two kinds of hydrangeas, a Korean spice viburnum, daylilies, echinacea, grasses, catmint and prairie flowers.
Q: How do you use your greenhouse? A: Will grows plants in there. He has a produce stand in front of the house where he sells things. Now that he’s semi-retired, he likes doing that. He grows vegetables, flowers and some hemp. It’s on a small scale. I try to start plants from seeds in there. It has a heater.
Q: What are some of the more recent gardens or features you’ve added on your property? A: I made a peony garden last year. I moved them from a different spot that got too shady. Before I moved them they had flowers, but they didn’t bloom as well as they could. I thought why not move these and start a peony garden. They’re doing pretty well. The area is about the size of a shed. I have three kinds; white, pink and red, but I plan to get more. I was watching, Around The Farm Table and they featured “Oh My Peonies” in Marion. I never saw so many peonies. I think they had 200 varieties. You can cut flowers or buy them there. That’s on my list.
We also have an open field where we have raised beds we put in this year. We are planting vegetables — things like potatoes, tomatoes, salad greens, cabbage, kale, collards, peas, spinach, peppers and different kinds of flowers. Will puts his compost mixture inside the beds.
We also added a fire pit at the front of the house.
Q: Any projects scheduled for this summer?
A: I think this year I’m going to try to enjoy what I’ve got. I’m always out there working and I don’t spend enough time sitting and looking at it. That’s when you see the activity, the hummingbirds and the bees. There’s a lot to look at. It’s hard to come up with a better place to be except maybe with your family. Although I do have plans to add a cutting garden.
Q: How much of your 2 acres did you turn into gardens?
A: About 80%
Q: What is your favorite garden?
A: The back garden by the limestone walls because it’s cozy and peaceful there. I feel immersed in nature when I sit out there.
Q: What are some of the trees you added on your property?
A: Weeping cherry trees, weeping crabs, eastern red buds, pines, crab apples, cherry and apple trees, Japanese maples and peach trees.
Q. Have you ever been on a garden tour before?
A: No.
Q: How much extra time have you spent working in your yard for the tour?
A: I’ve been working all day long some days since March weather permitting.
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