Tour Map [From 2024]

Front Yard: Native Pollination Garden. Several different plants for the bees, butterflies, and humming birds. We have paths to walk taking you from the front flower gardens, under our pergola, and along the noth side of our house to the back. Back Yard: Hosta Paradise! Our back yard gets much less sun so we have several shade plants. Ferndale Beautification Award winner for 2023.

After buying our home three years ago, I decided to try my hand and gardening. I began with perennial plants surrounding the landscape of our home, and then branched out into creating a perennial garden in our road verge. In the backyard, we have a small raised bed with which I rotate our annual veggies every spring. This year will be a heavy salsa year! I’ve planted tomatoes, tomatillos, jalapeños, onions, potatoes, radishes, and various herbs. Our gardens and lawn are naturally maintained. 

Oldest, lawnless property in Oak Park? My Grandmother, Master Gardener, Jeanne Vogt, established this estate between 1986-88. She instilled and inspired generations of our family a love, fascination and reverence for the natural world of which we are a part. I am honored to have had  the opportunity to purchase the property and steward her sanctuary since 2020, transforming it into a space that meets and evolves with the dynamic needs of two young amazing Autistic individuals! 

Enjoy a bit of whimsy with colorful pinwheels, playful gnomes, sunny annuals, vibrant perennials, and an assortment of vegetable plants.  

A mix of native tall-grass prairie and floodplain/wetland plants that attract a lot of bees. The plants have basically been in charge of their locations and densities for the last 10+ years and if not for continual pulling and mowing, green headed (aka cutleaf) coneflowers would have replaced the lawn years ago. A few of the tall sunflowers manage to get over 10-feet tall; the cup plant is 20+ years old and is staked with 10-foot pieces of rebar.

The gardens on this property feature native and ornametal plants, including plenty of milkweek, along with a diversity of blossoms. In the backyard, raised beds produced funky hybrid squash and mire!  

We started with a few rounds of hostas and the quickly exploded into hundreds! Our plan has always been to have low maintenance plants that looks nice, brings some color every year and allow the wildlife to flourish.  

Please visit the front and right side in the front. Also, go into the back where you can see a little bit of homegrown, a little bit of a surprise, a stretch of cottage rustic bliss, and the newest shade garden addition. Enjoy!  

Our landscape includes picturesque paintings by Larry and serve as a testament to peace and harmony amidst a chaotic world. Along with our paintings, the yard is host to a variety of plants and flowers, adding new ideas every year. And, as with all living things, the yard changes too evolves and breathes. Our little haven now provides us a Sanctuary where we can enjoy an evening of quiet rest, reflection and plenty of smiles. 

Charlie got tired of trying to grow grass in our front yard just to have to cut it, so we decided to put in gardens. We are growing veggies in the raised beds (potatoes, carrots, onions, & beets) since the front yard and driveway are the only places we get full sun (city ordinance allows for vegetables, even grains, in the front yard).

Cottage-style garden with multiple ponds bursting with colors, water, fairy gardens, fish, and playful garden art sited on a unique and original Oak Park homestead house built in the 1920s.  

The front yard is my fledgling woodland, featuring 400 native Michigan plant species and a rain garden. In the backyard, there is a circle garden and a sidelot garden featuring all native Michigan meadow plants and bushes. However, our schedule this summer has not enabled us to weed all of our beds, and we ask visitors to overlook untidiness. A small 'Asian-inspired' garden can be found in the back yard behind a 7 year old willow tree. We also have an American Elm in our backyard!

Our space features landscape and hardscape elements that help contribute to the ambiance of our gardens. Aside from the raised bed area in front of the house, the yard was almost a blank canvas when we moved in late 2011. Over the years we have developed our gardens with the intention of providing a tranquil place to relax. Featuring hardy perennials, natives and annuals; we enjoy sharing our space with the birds and pollinators. We hope our garden is never complete. 

This front yard garden features ornamentals with lots of pots and fun design elements. 

From grass to a pollinator garden, then to a (mostly) native perennial garden. Most of the plants are native to Michigan and Oakland County.

My garden is my happy place, my little peace on earth and labor of love. The garden is full of a variety of many textures and colors. The lesson I learned along the way to have the illusion of blooms all season long as well as annuals as my pop of color for the season. Most of the plants, trees and shrubs are native to our area. I’ve tried to create a Feng shui theme. It’s a work in progress but a garden is never done, even 33 years later. I’ve been working at less labor. Enjoy!

This garden is a testament to the DIY'ers of the world. It started in 2022 at the wishes of my dying father-in-law, Pops. He was an accomplished contractor and community advocate, and spent his life building things for other people. He bought the first round of plants and I got to work making his dreams come true. Sadly he passed later that year, but I have kept the garden going. I know Pops would love where the garden has gone, and I am excited to see how it evolves. 

Hydrangeas and hostas, plus flowers!

I don't really have a big garden plan in mind. The yard was simple and clean when I bought the house. I slowly started to make it mine and since I was broke for a while, I begged borrowed and received stuff to fill out spots with color. The neighbors new fences have made some changes so we'll see what's next. 

Norse Prairie Homestead is in its second season of a permaculture-focused pollinator-priority garden make-over. This previously-typical suburban yard has been reeimagined into a kitchen garden, food forest, and prairie meadow. This  garden features over 1250 native flowers, grasses, sedges, and ferns,  21 dwarf fruit trees, vegetables in raised beds, berry bushes, 25 native  shrubs, a butterfly-shaped rain garden, a pollinator prairie, a  woodland understory, a shade savanna, & 5 rain barrels.

My husband and I have been lifelong gardeners and enjoy not only the labor of working in the garden, but also relaxing and enjoying the beauty of all the flowers. We do not use chemicals so our garden may appeared somewhat disheveled without chemicals. we have all of the wildlife, including monarch butterflies, and lots of different kinds of birds. Each year, we had new perennials and I planned the garden so that there is something blooming from March until the end of fall. 

We purchased our home last July and have been working on it ever since. As an arborist, I have collected plants from clients who no longer want them and give them a new home in my garden! It has a lot of growing to do, but I have been incredibly happy with the woody plants I have been able to install so far. I am passionate about plants that provide food sources for myself and wildlife. Moving forward, I intend on installing berry producing shrubs/trees and native herbaceous perennials.

This space was created for us to have a peaceful and serene place to go without leaving the comforts of our home. There are multiple species of flowers and plants which gives us a sense of calmness. This space will give you a sense of relaxation and tranquility!