LIFESTYLE OPEN HOUSE
A Backyard Made in the Shade
FOR ONE TOSA HOMEOWNER, A SMALL SHADY SPOT IS A LUSH RETREAT. BY MARK HAGEN Photos by Michael Burmesch.
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estled in the East Towne Neighborhood of Wauwatosa sits a hideaway tucked behind Jackie Menzl’s cozy home. When Menzl bought her house 30 years ago, the backyard was nothing more than a standard Milwaukee lot … a rectangle of grass and clover, dappled in sunlight. Menzl realized she had a blank slate on her hands and quickly got to work.
“Initially, I installed a 14-foot brick patio,” she explains. “It features seating for five around a fire pit, a grill and a little bistro set.” While the patio was definitely a quaint spot, Menzl knew it was only the beginning. “At the end of that summer, I created a scale drawing of the yard so I could come up with a landscaping design over winter. “I looked at the entire backyard space as an outdoor room; an extension of the house,” she explains. “Every year trees were added and that reduced sunlight further. Grass did not grow well for me,
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so I eliminated it, laying crushed-granite pathways instead.” Menzl filled most other areas with shade plants such as hostas, ferns and miscellaneous ground covers. “Ninety percent of the plants are perennials,” she adds.
POPS OF COLOR Menzl adjusted her landscape design as trees grew and sunlight became even less of a commodity. “The flowers I originally planted had to change spots with the increasing shade,” she says. Shade-loving impatiens and begonias are now the most popular floral in the yard, offering a bit
