The Wisconsin Gardener

>> I first heard about this garden when I was buying sausages at Bavaria Sausage Kitchen in Fitchburg. I've been shopping there for years, and for years people have been saying, you've got to see the garden of our owners! Well, recently I saw a photo, and I realized we all needed to take a closer look. This is Fred and Kathe Voll of Verona, and this is their garden. Join me as we take a tour of this lovely back yard. Fred, tell me about the pond. What was here originally? >> Well, Shelley, that was a swimming pool. >> This whole thing? >> The whole thing, all the way over there, including on the outside of this, and all the way back there. >> A huge pool then! >> We had actually, enough swimming, so we decided let's just close it up and see what happens. We filled it up with 38 truck-loads of dirt. Oh, this is for you Shelley, I forgot all about that. >> Oh, thank you! >> Anyway, we filled it up and started seeding it and we sprinkled it with water and we mowed it. >> So you made this into a big lawn? >> It looked ugly. We had this great, big lawn and there with nothing. What can you do with it? >> What did you do with it? >> I said to Kathe, do you want to play tennis? None of us ever played tennis. So she say, you know, I saw a nice picture with a pool, with fish in it, and you know, it looks good. Take a look at it. So I looked at it, and I went out here with a water hose and laid this all out. After we laid it out I took a look at some magazines I got from Germany and, how deep we need. What's the freezing point of the water for the fish? So we decided we'd go down about 45-50 inches. >> Wow, so it's fairly deep here. >> It's pretty nice and deep. We dug it out. It was more work than I really wanted to do with a pick and shovel. >> You did the work? >> Yeah, I called for some help once in a while, but in two days we had it out. We took a nice roofing liner that they use on regular, flat-top houses, and we laid it out and lined it up. We put some stones around it, and here we had a pool. >> You're telling me, this was a big swimming pool, you filled the pool in, then you dug it up again a year later? >> It wasn't even a year later. It was from the fall until the next spring. At the first grass mowing, it just didn't look right. >> Well, it looks beautiful now. >> Yes, with the water in and the fish. My wife put some knowledge into it of flowers. She's good at that. That's her department. >> You did all of the digging and all of the construction? >> Yes, I'm the soil scientist, okay, and I take orders. She did all of this. She's great on the flowers. Look around. Look at all the plants she does. >> We have a beautiful Maltese Cross here in a bright red color. >> At this time of year to have this beautiful almost orange-red. That's just gorgeous. Do you and Fred work together as far as the designing and the planting, and things like that? >> Oh, yeah. Without Fred I couldn't do it. He's the muscle behind all this. I do the planning and the planting. >> You're the horticultural expert. >> Right, and Fred does all the shoveling and the hard work. Like I said, without him I couldn't do it. He's a good helper. >> You've got a mixture of perennials, you've got shrubs. We've got Spirea here. >> Yes, some peppermint ones. Some daylilies, Stella de Oro. >> Is this the re-bloomer? >> Yes, they bloom all summer long. >> It comes back again and again, doesn't it? >> Right, they're very nice. You get your money's worth out of them. And we've got some prairie flowers, the white Cone flowers and some Malvas. >> Now these Coral Bells are just beautiful. >> They're very delicate and beautiful in color. I have to put a support around them, because they hang. When Fred mows the lawn, anything hanging he mows over. >> He really is not the plant person! >> He's not gentle with the flowers. >> This just turned out beautiful. You picked all the plants yourself? >> They're all perennials. There's no annuals in here. >> The plants in the pond look so wonderful too. The lilies you've got in that end, and you've got other things here too. >> We've got a ledge around the pond which we filled with marginal plants, like you got your cattails and pickerel, with the blue flower over there. They only tolerate about 2-1/2 inches of water. >> So they stay on the ledge in shallow water. >> All year long. In the winter-time nothing comes out. >> We weren't sure the first year and I was a little-- I took them out the first year. That was a job, because they're heavy. >> Yeah, I would think so. >> You know, they're potted in the bottom and you have to lift them out. I took them down to the Sausage Kitchen. We have a big cooler. We kept them in the cooler and they were fine. The following year I didn't do it and there you go. >> And you said this is about six years, so they've been doing great over winter. >> They're doing fine. >> What about the fish? >> I don't have to do anything. I go in, maybe, once every two weeks. Really, it doesn't take any work at all. >> So it's fairly low maintenance too. >> Very low. We have a good filtering system. The fish are happy and so am I. >> Do the fish survive over the winter? >> Yes. They slow down, they don't eat when the water goes down to 48. I don't feed them anymore. >> I have to ask you, you feed them something special. I noticed they're following us around the pond like puppies. >> Yes! Spaghetti. >> They eat spaghetti? >> They love their spaghetti, and they love rice. They like bread balls, you know, like the white bread you have that sometimes gets chewy. you put that in and they just love it. >> So these are just spoiled rotten fish. >> Spoiled rotten, that's right. >> Well, they have a beautiful home. Thank you for sharing this garden with us. It's really lovely, Fred. >> Thank you. It's nice having you up here. >> Thanks!