Nakoma Garden Tour  Wednesday June 3, 2026

Alice Page   4010 Cherokee Drive, Madison  53711

I have been gardening in the Nakoma neighborhood since 2001. The garden has its roots in 1936 when the house was built and the original owners installed the beautiful stone work in the tiered back yard. Over the years, I added a brick patio, walkway, paths made from stepping stones taken from the original patio, and a small water feature. I have some unusual trees as well as dwarf conifers and Japanese maples. Pops of color provided by astilbes, lady's mantle, early daylilies, small campanula, gas plants, roses, clematis, and peonies are set off by the varied colors and textures of the hostas, Japanese forest grass, ferns, and other foliage plants. With a little luck, the fringe tree will still be in bloom!

Margaret Longstreth and Alan Kren  926 Waban Hill, Madison   53711

Four years ago, when we bought the house, the front garden consisted of some oddly placed hostas behind a scraggly oak tree-shaded lawn. The backyard featured an equally scraggly lawn accentuated by the shadow of a long-gone trampoline. We’ve since focused on developing a shade garden with shape and texture, something attractive from the street and equally pleasant to view from inside the house looking out. This is very much a garden in development and our previous years’ efforts define this year’s additions. There are a mix of natives, ornamentals, and divisions from our neighbors--all less than four years in the ground. While this is a standard 50’ x 175’ city lot, one side of the backyard is unfenced making a parklike feel as three backyards merge into one.

 Frank Greer, Under White Oaks  925 Waban Hill, Madison  53711

I have been gardening on this site for 46 years, a standard city lot, 50 ft wide and 175 feet deep. It is a shade garden for the most part, gardened “intensively”. No grass. Emphasis is on NON- natives and plants NOT resistant to climate change. No apologies. It could be described as a typical “plantsman’s garden,” to use an English expression. There is a goldfish pond and over 200 containers, according to my grandchildren, who count such things. The newest part of the garden is the street-side terrace that was started in August 2020. Hopefully, with this relatively warm spring there might even be a few martagon lilies open (fingers crossed).

Wendy Adams and Gary Leisman  901 Waban Hill, Madison  53711

Twenty-some years ago we moved to this shady site (12 oak trees on a regular city lot) and I began to learn about shade gardening. (Having Frank Greer for a neighbor definitely accelerated the learning process). Evergreen shrubs and trees (boxwood, conifers, rhododendron, and hollies) have helped create year-round interest. I have gradually added a variety of perennials for their variety of color and texture of foliage, e.g.ferns, carex, hostas, brunnera, pulmonaria, as well as flowers, e.g. spring ephemerals, hellebores, astilbes, ligularia, anemones, Phlox stolonifera, geraniums, woodland peonies- it’s been such fun to discover how many plants have lovely flowers in the shade!