Garden Tour: Door County Mosaic Art

A lattice-framed porch looks out into the garden, where fencing repeats the lattice look.

As with her art, Karin jumped into gardening with far more enthusiasm than knowledge. But she eventually worked at a nursery part-time and signed up for Master Gardener courses (offered by state university extension programs), gaining a thorough knowledge of perennials, annuals, trees and shrubs—and what species do best in her climate. Now her garden features such signature items as low-maintenance perennial borders full of the flat heads of yellow yarrow, frothy bands of white daisies and frilly tops of red monarda.

Karin goes for any plant “that’s hardy and that I don’t have to water,” she says. One of her favorites: white yucca, because it thrives on neglect. That gives her more time to focus on the colorful sculptures, eclectic artwork and brilliant recastings in an imaginative garden where lost things find new meaning.