Master Gardeners Highlight Garden Rooms April 12

The gardens of Door County residents Jane and Tom Luebker. Submitted.

The April 12 meeting of the Door County Master Gardeners Association will feature a program by Tom Luebker, a certified landscape designer and greenhouse operator. The first half of his presentation will include the history of garden rooms and structures, styles, walls and floors that are used in these rooms, photos of rooms he and his wife, Jane, have created on their property north of Sturgeon Bay over the past 10 years, and information about plants that do well in Door County.

After a short break, the program will resume with an overview of garden structures, including the most important structure on one’s property – your home. Luebker will also discuss the importance of unity, repetition and maintainability in buildings, structures and garden art. He will also highlight the importance of foundations under patios and provide a short list of lessons learned from constructing their water feature. He has previously presented programs at Crossroads at Big Creek on vegetable gardening and landscape design.

The meeting will begin at 7 pm at Crossroads, 2041 Michigan St. in Sturgeon Bay. It is open to the public at no charge, as part of the Master Gardeners’ Continuing Education Program.

From alfalfa fields to garden rooms – the home of Door County residents Jane and Tom Luebker. Submitted.

A native of Arkansas, Luebker received a bachelor’s degree in economics from the state university before beginning a career in the military. His wife grew up in Oshkosh, and through the years they frequently visited Wisconsin. After their marriage in 1974, they bought a vacation home on Pearl Lake in Waushara County where they spent annual leaves.

“Wisconsin really began to grow on me,” Luebker says. “I loved the lifestyle.”

After an overseas tour of duty in 1985, the couple drove through Door County.

“I was amazed,” he says. “I loved all the shoreline, all the water, all the cherry orchards, the little villages along the bay and Lake Michigan. In 1999, I suggested to Jane that we retire in Wisconsin. She said she was willing to live in Dane County or Door County. I didn’t know Dane County, but I loved Door County, and the next year we bought a 20-acre alfalfa field on Country View Road.”

Four years later, they moved into the home they had designed, which has sunrise views from the front porch and sunset views from the back deck (while in the Army, Luebker had completed a master’s degree in construction management at Boston University).

A farm boy at heart, he wanted large spaces to raise flowers, vegetables and fruit. Initially, they planted a large vegetable garden and a strawberry bed that consisted of five 100-foot rows and sold produce at farmers’ markets in Jacksonport and Sister Bay. This proved to be a lot of work and has been scaled back to a much smaller vegetable plot and three 40-foot rows of strawberries. They’ve also added a small raspberry patch.

“I have all the respect in the world for people who raise things to take to farmers’ markets, because I understand how much work they’re putting into it,” he says.

After their first Door County winter, the couple realized that their high location required a windbreak to protect plants in the middle of an open field, so their initial job was to plant a big one. Although Luebker knew a lot about plants when he moved here, he found that Door County presented some challenges – namely the alkaline soil. An applied science degree in landscape horticulture, studying with Lee Hanson at NWTC in Green Bay, supplied all the answers he needed and completed his education.

The Luebkers’ home is located on five acres in the middle of the original 20-acre alfalfa field. The rest of the land is rented to Mike and Jamie Henschel, who raise crops.