West of the Lake Gardens. Manitowoc, Wisconsin.
When Ruth St. John and John West acquired their 6 acres on the shores of Lake Michigan in the 1930's, the former streetcar right of way had a wooded shoreline and stretches of thistle and quack grass. They built a modest Bauhaus inspired home that maximized their space for landscaping. "By the autumn of 1934, Mrs. West became addicted to gardening. A hopeless case! With an initial purchase of 200 tulips, the garden was born…. By the 1950’s more than 30,000 tulips filled formal, gracefully sweeping beds among developing perennial borders.” (source: West of Lakes Gardens) This gardenesque style garden celebrates the Wests love of beauty.
The Path Garden was the first space planted by Ruth St. John. It originally was a wheel barrow path to the lake.
In 1962 John Glenn became the first American to orbit Earth. His passing this month is a good excuse to remember the Space Age and Atomic Era and how this period influenced gardening. The Sunken Garden we see above at West of the Lake Gardens in Manitowoc, Wisconsin provides a great example...