Landscaping Over the Past 7 Decades
It was early in August of 1965 that I was born at Waukesha Memorial Hospital. From there, my parents, Dean and Marge, took me home to our modest farmhouse on River Road in the Town of Mukwonago. If you’re a regular listener of my weekly radio show, “The Designer Yard Show,” you know that my family raised Quarter Horses and Beef Cattle on this farm. Of course, I have wonderful memories of my childhood living on a farm with horses and cattle. However, my earliest memories were playing in the yard surrounding the old farmhouse with my brother Bart and sister Shelly.
It was a simple space, with a large slab of concrete outside the back door. We did have a beautiful front porch, but it was only used by strangers. The concrete slab had a wooden picnic table, a flowerpot and an insulated box for the weekly milk delivery. I remember a low lilac hedge along River Road that kept us safe from traffic and an enormous Cottonwood tree that filled our yard and window screens with cotton every summer. Finally, we had a worn footpath through the grass that led to the barn. This is what constituted landscaping in the late 1960s. At least for our family.
In the decades since my childhood, the mindset around landscaping has shifted. For many families, the 1970s meant the yard was utilitarian: a place to step outside, hang laundry, get to the garage, or eat an occasional meal together. In the 1980s neatness mattered, but “design” wasn’t the goal. Over time, as homes became a bigger part of our personal identity and financial security, people began to see the outdoors as an extension of the home.
In the 1990s, the swimming pool followed that same evolution – once a luxury, it became a family-centered destination. Outdoor kitchens also shifted in meaning. Many years ago, homes relied on “summer kitchens” out of necessity. People built outdoor kitchens to avoid overheating the house. Whereas today’s outdoor kitchens are about hospitality and keeping people together while preparing meals. After September 11, 2001, many families leaned into the idea of the “staycation,” investing in a home as a retreat rather than traveling. During Covid, pavilions surged in popularity as people looked for comfortable, inspiring places to work from home.
For the past 31 years, we’ve been helping homeowners translate feelings like tranquility, connection, pride, relaxation, into wonderful functional, inspiring environments. That means listening first, then designing and building outdoor environments that are easy to live in, and inspiring in every season. Then we provide a complete line of horticultural care and landscape- management services all designed so that you can simply enjoy life outdoors.
Bret Achtenhagen is the owner of Bret Achtenhagen’s Seasonal Services, a premier landscape design, build, and maintenance firm founded in 1994 and based in Mukwonago. Bret also hosts “The Designer Yard Show” on 1130 WISN, airing Saturdays at 1pm.
