Friday, June 15, 2012

Garden Walk - Cyrus Yawkey Historic Home - Museum

I recently attended a lecture by Lee Somerville, author of "Vintage Wisconsin Gardens a History of Home Gardening."  She did an excellent presentation about why "we" garden the way we do throughout history and focused on Wisconsin gardens.  I purchased her book, which she autographed.


her presentation was in the historical museum


with tours of the Cyrus Yawkey historic home garden.  The Yawkey family settled in Wausau, Wisconsin.  Most of the historic homes in the Wausau area were built by lumber barrons.  Wausau is along the beautiful Wisconsin River.  This museum garden was first designed in 1910 for the Yawkey's daughters wedding in 1911.  A renovation of the garden was just completed this spring using the original plans.  Some plants are no longer available, but they tried to keep the plants native and historically accurate.

I enjoyed myself, even in the rain.  Here are some pictures.





Lee Somerville is the one in the black skirt.  The other lady, owns a greenhouse, Clearview Nursery and  is one of the garden volunteers who worked on the garden renovation.





I learned some pretty interesting facts about gardening history from 19th - 20th century.  I really enjoyed it.

Blessings from Wisconsin.

2 comments: