MILWAUKEE — When you step into Steve Bielk’s backyard in Milwaukee’s Historic Brewer’s Hill, you’re greeted by hundreds of plants and flowers.
“We’ve got about 500 varieties of plants out here,” said Bielk. “Trees, shrubs, grasses, perennials and so on.”
Bielk and his wife began working on their garden in 1987. It’s named the Sanger House Gardens, which is the name of their home. In the late 1800s, a Milwaukee mayor once lived there.
“I worked downtown,” said Bielk. “Reason I started the garden was I needed to get away from 60-hour work weeks.”
Bielk is completely self-taught. He’s spent countless hours, money and, not to mention, lots of time in his garden.
“There was no internet in 1986,” said Bielk. “I bought a couple hundred books by very famous people in England and United States.”
Just 35 years later, he’s teaching his skills to the community. When the pandemic hit, Bielk opened his garden to the public and, since then, he gets visitors daily.
“Other people can come in and enjoy it and see what you’re trying to do and it gives them encouragement as a gardener because I’m self taught,” said Bielk. “No schooling, no horticulture degree. They can do the same thing themselves.”
Gardening groups from across the state also pay him a visit. Recently, Erin Presley from Madison’s Olbrich Botanical Gardens brought her interns to see Bielk’s work.
“This is a great kind of bucket list garden as far as being a really well developed and intricately layered home garden,” said Presley. “For our interns, it’s important that we expose them to all types of garden styles.”
For Bielk, the compliments from visitors are a reminder of the decades of work he’s put into his garden. Bielk is hoping to continue inspiring others to see that with hard work and patience, they too can create their dream garden even if they’re self-taught.
Sanger House Gardens also has an Airbnb on his property for visitors to get the full experience when visiting his garden. The garden also hosts small weddings and other events.