Near West Side Garden Tour  Wednesday, July 15, 2026

Kitty and Gene Rankin  2818 Ridge Road,  Madison 53705

We live in an historic Dutch Colonial house built in 1907. It sits on a half-acre lot that has a large open front yard and a wooded backyard. When we moved in, the yard had been neglected – weed-filled rubber tire sand boxes, stretches of rotted wood stacks, dense brush and wild grape vines with six-inch trunks. But the next spring brought a delightful surprise – the back yard and parts of the front yard were carpeted in spring ephemerals. The summer and fall brought old-fashioned perennials like peonies, phlox and tiger lilies. I am a flower lover, so anything that brought color to the scenery was welcome to stay, precious perennial or weed. You will notice that my grass is similarly “biodiverse.” Two full-time jobs and a little one took up most of our time but a friend lent us an enormous wood chipper and it rattled the neighbors’ windows for a few years. Eventually wild and not-so-wild flowers replaced the honeysuckle and buckthorn.

Over the years came other surprises, like the spring flowers, gifts from an old house garden well-loved in the distant past. First was when I was weeding and my trowel clinked on something. Soon I had unearthed the rim of an old kidney-shaped pond. We shoveled it out and it held water! Up the hill we ran into an old pipe while sawing down a half-dead volunteer elm. Digging around revealed that it was the steps of an old waterfall (unfortunately the steps had settled and the water just trickles off the side). An old set of steps now leads down from the kitchen wing, a path leads into the yard of our neighbors to the back (we changed it to lead to our shed), and the whole north slope is now a rock garden, all formerly covered in earth.

In the new Millenium I started yearning for more sun-loving plants, so my husband took a rototiller to the front yard and created four large garden beds. We travel to England regularly and make a point of visiting gardens there and now I have my own English Cottage Garden! I am nowhere near being done. I am trying to introduce more interesting shade plants in the backyard, but a huge old catalpa casts its shadow on everything and drains moisture out of the soil. I battle waves of invasives that seem to explode when I turn my back. But I hope to someday reach my goal of creating a garden that expresses abundance and joy!

Jeff and Kathy Epping  310 E Sunset Court, Madison  53705

When Kathy and I looked for a new home nearly 25 years ago, I only had one request – a mature oak to become the centerpiece of my dream garden. Well, that didn’t happen, but the property offered good soil beneath a lot of lawn and invasive shrubs. After clearing the site, we began building the garden from the ground up. What were once two small lawns are now a gravel garden in front and a sedge meadow in back — layered, plant-rich spaces inspired by my two favorite English gardens, Great Dixter and the Beth Chatto Garden.

310 Sunset is intentionally lawn-less and managed with ecological responsibility at its core. Native and non-native, climate-resilient plants grow together, creating beauty while supporting the many creatures that can inhabit urban gardens. The garden is designed and managed to conserve water, our most precious resource. Organic matter produced by a diverse plant palette is preserved on site, while pesticides and pollution-emitting tools have been banished for good. 310 Sunset shows how even a small urban garden can support biodiversity while responding meaningfully to a changing climate.

John and Jean Mathews  305 S Owen Dr, Madison  53705

Now in our twelfth year in this home, the landscape continues to evolve with a Japanese-inspired theme. Over the years, we have gradually transformed the property into layered garden spaces that emphasize texture, structure, and tranquility. We are fortunate to have mature maple and cedar trees that provide a natural framework for the backyard.

This year, the final remaining patch of grass was removed and replaced with a traditional tsukubai, a bamboo fountain, creating a new focal point that further enhances the Japanese character of the garden.

Although our lot is modest in size, we have designed it to feel like a series of connected garden rooms that transition naturally from the front yard to the back. The front garden features dwarf hostas, dwarf conifers, dwarf ginkgos, Japanese maples, perennials, and seasonal annuals that provide color throughout the growing season. A separate moss and dwarf plant garden near the front entrance includes a small water feature that adds to the sense of calm.

A rounded boulder pathway guides visitors toward a traditional Japanese-style garden gate. Beyond the gate, the walkway transitions into a geometric blend of stone and cedar planks that loops through the backyard garden. There, shade-tolerant plantings, additional dwarf trees, bamboo fencing, a stone patio, machiai and a pond with a waterfall and stream create a quiet retreat.

Building the waterfall was one of the property’s biggest challenges because the backyard originally had very little elevation. More than thirty tons of stone and gravel were brought in to create the raised flagstone patio and provide the height needed for the cascading water feature. The pond remains one of our favorite features of the garden and is home to four large koi that have become part of the landscape’s personality over the years. Sheldon the tortoise is still with us as well and continues to be a familiar presence in the garden each summer.

Jill Bulman 11 Rosewood Circle, Madison 53711

I started my garden journey when we purchased our first home on the West side of Madison 12 years ago. Prior to us, our home was owned by the Bryson family and was one of the first homes in our neighborhood. Professor Reid Bryson (founder of the UW Meteorology Dept)  and his family planted many native perennials, tended to grape vines that are now over 100 years old, and squirreled away many beautiful rocks that my children and I have joyfully discovered.

Today, I am a farmer-florist, who owns Rosewood Circle Flowers. In my yard I grow cut flowers in a 45’ x 65’ plot,  throughout my landscape, and in raised beds. I love the process of seeing tiny seeds grow to plants to striking colors in each arrangement. I don’t use pesticides or herbicides, and I am conscious of the gross use of floral foam and plastics in the industry.  I love sharing the field-to-vase movement and teaching classes that highlight seasonality and avoiding flowers that have been dyed or bleached. When I don’t have flowers, I source from my local cut flower farmers and love building community. I firmly believe in collaboration over competition. There is room for all of us at this table!  Some of my perennials include 100+ peonies and there is a small magnolia, a sycamore, an old Japanese maple and too many pine trees. Last year I started a rose garden with 9 varieties – I hope they all survived the winter. I planted over 4000 tulips last fall, and in the summer months I grow over 200 dahlias (among other cut flowers).