The two, who took the top award in the 2004 Mayor's Landscape Award competition, are members of the Bay View Garden and Yard Society - commonly referred to as the Bay View GAYS.
They say that as members of the group, they were able to exchange ideas and plants, but they also got advice and inspiration that helped in their efforts to change their simple yard into a stunning one.
Being in the club really helped, Bachar says, "and I loved creating our own Shangri-La. I love the solitude. It's a peaceful place to go and have breakfast in the morning, or a glass of wine or a cold beer in the evening. I love having a place to sit and watch the butterflies bounce around, and I like to watch the dragonflies spin around and drive my cat, Mushroom, crazy."
Burgner, who owns the home, says he started making changes in the backyard about 10 years ago after he met Dan Austin, who founded the group. "For a while there I practically hated Dan," Burgner says, jokingly. "He cost me thousands of dollars!"
Austin, the group's first president, also was a former first-place winner in the city competition. "They created an urban sanctuary in their yard," Austin says. "When you enter through the gate you forget the fact that you're in the city."
Joe Wilson, executive director of Greening Milwaukee, which sponsors the Mayor's Landscape Awards, says it's no surprise that the first-place winners live in Bay View. "The Bay View club has been very successful in getting first-place winners in the past because of the shared experience, advice and tips that they pass on to each other."
The thousands of dollars Burgner spent went toward the purchase of about 5 tons of Lannon stone that he used to make beds that he filled with plants. He also installed a patio for grilling and one for sitting.
When his job as executive chef at the Marcus Center's catering department got out of control, Bachar stepped in and started maintaining and expanding the gardens. He has worked in home improvement in the past and is in the process of starting his own garden and home improvement business.
Bachar began tending the spaces around the brick Tudor home nearly five years ago. Since then, he not only expanded the gardens at the rear of the home, he added plantings to one side of the home and at the front.
He also eliminated lots of grass. "Every year that I have lived here I put in a garden or added footage. Less lawn, more garden. That is one of my mantras as well as Spiro's mantra," he says.
The house, which sits on a slight hill, has a Japanese cherry tree on one side of the front steps, a weeping mulberry tree on the other. He says the cherry tree was his impetus to start planting at the front of the house. He installed a Lannon stone pathway near the front of the house that gently curves past the tree leading to a side garden. At the other side of the front of the house, he trimmed the overgrown branches of the mulberry, then formed a teardrop-shaped flower bed under it.
In a side yard, he selected plants that were large or had large foliage, including hosta, bleeding heart, angelica and butterbur.
While the front and side yards are attractive and well-tended, it's the backyard that stands apart. In addition to the raised beds and patios, it has two mature pine trees, a pear tree and an apple. Maples line the rear of the property, but they look more like a hedge than trees. "I bonsai them" so they form a natural privacy fence,"Bachar says.
One of the most striking areas of the backyard is the vine-covered garage. Two grapevines and three clematis have merged and now cover two sides of the small white garage and are creeping up the roof. At the side of the house, an old privet hedge was snipped back and a wood fence installed. Over time, the hedge grew into open spaces of the fence, resulting in an unusual green privacy fence.
Bright-colored flowers in the beds compete for attention with garden ornamentation such as an olive oil jar Burgner bought from a local artist, a chimineaand large pots of bright flowers, including zinnias and a "Black Dragon" coleus.
Bachar describes the look of his gardens as casual. He says he chooses plants that have great foliage and is trying to have more continuous color in his flower beds. "I look at the foliage first - the bloom is a secondary consideration, but a big one. One thing I'm trying to do more of is to get things to bloom every couple of weeks throughout the season."
Nowadays Bachar plants mainly perennials, but he still adds annuals for color. "I put in five flats of annuals this year, down from 11 or 12 the year before," he says. Some of the plants in his gardens are low-growing sedum, coral bells,cosmos, Veronica, peonies, echinacea and impatiens. He estimates that he spends an average of 20 hours a week in the yard and says it's not unusual for him to spend a 10-hour day in the gardens.
Bachar already is planning changes for spring. "Next year I'm going to get rid of all the grass in the area between the street and sidewalk. I'm going to put pavers along the curbside for people to walk on. Then I'll put plants there that are native, and those that will be hardy in case people step on them." |
