Allow me to introduce the blog for The Sievert Gardens.  I am Dale Sievert, creator of the gardens and the blog.  I began the gardens in 1970 when my wife, Dorothy, and I built our home on a one-acre lot in Waukesha County in Wisconsin.  Because it was previously a farm, there were no trees or shrubs on the property.  However, in back of the property there was a 20-acre woods, and along the left property line, there was a 300-foot long hedgerow that was a boundary for a field.  The lot slopes upward toward the rear, with a sharp rise on the back right, which is actually the side of a glacial drumlin, denoting the direction of the movement of the last glacier, which ended here about 9,000 years ago.  We selected this lot because I knew I could create more interesting gardens with significant changes in altitude.
   The gardens have been in a constant state of development since 1970, and there is really no end in sight.  As I am now 73 years old and in my 46th year of building the gardens, I should finish them about the end of my youth or the beginning of middle age--of my next life.  As this blog is developed, I will add an album of photos of the gardens in their current state.  I will also post photos of the earlier stages of the gardens.  The blog will have discussions of specific items and places in the gardens: explaining my reasons for them; describing the construction; and commenting on their development and alteration over time.
   In 2005, I began using mosses in my gardens, and that has been the most significant change in my gardens since the beginning.  I did so originally because I had begun to build a small Japanese-style garden, and moss gardens are common to gardens in Japan.  I expanded their use because I found mosses so beautiful.  In the last four years, I have begun to share my passion for and knowledge of mosses with other gardeners.  I designed and helped build two moss gardens in two public Japanese gardens, at Rotary Botanic Gardens in Janesville, WI and the Garden of the Phoenix in Chicago.  I gave lectures on moss gardening on three occasions and will give three more this year, including at the Chicago Botanic Garden and the Anderson Japanese Garden in Rockford, IL.  I wrote articles on moss gardening for Sukiya Living Magazine and the Journal of the North American Japanese Gardening Association.
   The gardens, their planning, development, and viewing, provided me with immense enjoyment over the years.  Every morning when weather permits, I can hardly wait to get outside to "play" in them.  I started this endorphin-generating activity at age seven, when I planted annual flowers in geometrical designs around the farm house where I lived in Manitowoc County, Wisconsin.  I am essentially that same kid who, thankfully, never really grew up.