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After Hours
Not-so-secret Garden Room
by Erin Madigan
City living sometimes leaves little room for green space. That's one reason why Deborah Kern, 46, opened her shop in Shorewood. It's an oasis for the urban gardener.
"I'm an avid gardener who got tired of trying to find things I wanted," Kern said, who sells everything from Italian pottery and German lawn mowers to watering cans and rubber clogs. The store carries the funky and the functional. For example, a fungus wreath donned with dried, wild mushrooms can be found just a few feet away from potting soil.
Garden Room, 2107 E. Capitol Drive, which opened in November 2001, is complete with a rooftop garden, a Belgian green house and a research library that's open to the public. The rooftop garden bed is 18 inces deep with a light, clay-based soil. Garden accessories, local art and exotic plants are displayed so customers can see items away from the showroom floor and see how they'd weather over time.
Customers must surrender to the tranquility upon entering the shop. Natural light spills through an enormous skylight, water trickles down the three-tiered fountain and soft, new-age music fills the air. No one would suspect the building was once a service garage. The building took 18 months to renovate and Kern also plans to add a tea room on the lower level, as is commonly found in European gardens.
Word of the Garden Room has spread since its opening. Tom Froehlich, Kern's marketer and merchandiser, said people drive from Chicago to visit the shop because it carries items not found elsewhere. "It's amazing that a Milwaukee shop can compete with the third-largest city in the country," he said.
Kern, who lives in Whitefish Bay, worked as a legal secretary at Michael Best & Friedrich L.L.P., Milwaukee, for several years before opening Garden Room. According to Kern, the best part about her work is meeting the customers.
"Gardeners are so friendly," she says.
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