Marek Landscaping

Gallery Night At Marek Landscaping: Where Art and Nature Met

Megan Foley — Sun, 18 Jan 2026 22:38:22 +0000

Last October, Marek Landscaping opened the doors of our Milwaukee design studio for something a little different. We hosted our first ever Gallery Night, welcoming clients, partners, neighbors, and friends into our space to celebrate the powerful intersection of art and nature.

An Evening Inspired by the Natural World

Our design studio was transformed into a living gallery featuring more than 30 works by local Milwaukee artist Kimberly Burnett. Her pieces, rich with texture, color, and emotion, invited guests to slow down, look closely, and experience nature through an artistic lens. Kimberly’s work complemented our own approach to ecological restoration and land stewardship, both grounded in observation, creativity, and respect for natural systems.

Adding another layer of depth to the evening, we were honored to host Dr. Steve Carini, a local bonsai artist and grower. Dr. Carini brought over 20 bonsai trees, some more than 30 years old. These living sculptures sparked conversations throughout the night about patience, care, and the long-term relationship between people and plants. Seeing decades of thoughtful cultivation embodied in each tree was both humbling and inspiring.

A Space for Connection

Gallery Night was about more than displaying beautiful work. It was about creating a space for connections. Guests explored the Marek design studio, enjoyed light refreshments, and engaged in meaningful conversations with the artists and one another. The evening reflected what we value most at Marek Landscaping: community, creativity, and stewardship of the land.

Events like this remind us that landscapes are not just functional or ecological. They are cultural spaces that shape how we live, gather, and relate to the natural world.

Looking Ahead

As we move into the new year, we’re excited to host more in-person events that bring our community together. From educational talks to art-forward gatherings, we see our space as a hub for ideas, inspiration, and dialogue around green infrastructure, ecological restoration, and thoughtful design.

If you joined us for Gallery Night, thank you for being part of such a memorable evening. If you missed it, we hope to see you at a future event soon.

Stay tuned for upcoming gatherings and for more moments where art and nature meet at Marek Landscaping.

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Mike Marek Attends Inspiring Lecture on Nature’s Vital Role at Wisconsin Union

Megan Foley — Thu, 06 Nov 2025 21:08:37 +0000

We’re excited to share that Mike Marek, founder of Marek Landscaping, recently attended the Wisconsin Union Directorate’s Distinguished Lecture Series on October 14, 2025, where he heard acclaimed National Geographic photojournalist Ami Vitale deliver her powerful presentation “Wild Hope: Rethinking Our Relationship With Nature.”

Held at Shannon Hall in Memorial Union, this free community event brought together students, faculty, and local residents for an evening of thought-provoking discussion about our connection to the natural world. For those who know Mike, this topic hits close to home—his lifelong dedication to landscaping stems from a deep belief in nature’s essential role in our communities and wellbeing.

A Message That Resonates

Vitale’s presentation captivated the audience with stunning photography and compelling stories from her decades of work documenting the intersection of humanity and wildlife. She shared powerful narratives about individuals on the front lines of climate change and conservation who are refusing to let environmental challenges define their futures.

Mike particularly connected with Vitale’s emphasis on the delicate balance between human communities and natural ecosystems—a philosophy that directly aligns with Marek Landscaping’s approach to creating sustainable, nature-integrated outdoor spaces.

More Than Just Photography

What made the evening especially meaningful was learning about Vitale’s non-profit organization, Vital Impacts, which has raised over $5 million to support critical conservation projects worldwide. Through this initiative, she leverages the power of art to inspire action and mobilize youth as agents of environmental change.

“This lecture reinforced why we do what we do at Marek Landscaping,” Mike shared afterward. “Vitale’s work shows that when we respect and work with nature rather than against it, we create spaces that don’t just look beautiful—they heal, connect, and sustain us. Her stories of communities finding innovative solutions to environmental challenges give me hope and inspiration for our work here in Wisconsin.”

Bringing Insights Home

As a company that believes in creating landscapes that honor the natural character of our region while serving community needs, we’re already incorporating insights from Vitale’s talk into our planning discussions. Her perspective on how thoughtful design can strengthen the human-nature connection will inform our approach to future projects.

We’re grateful to the Wisconsin Union Directorate for hosting this important conversation and providing a platform for vital discussions about our relationship with the environment. If you’re interested in learning more about sustainable landscaping practices that honor our connection to nature, we’d love to discuss how we can bring these principles to your outdoor space.

Interested in hearing more about how nature-focused design can transform your property? Contact Marek Landscaping today for a consultation.

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We’re Growing!

Marek_Katie — Thu, 01 Dec 2022 20:33:17 +0000

Just after the close of our first investment campaign with Honeycomb, which successfully met 100% of our funding goal, many of you continued to reach out to ask about future investment opportunities for our Perch Point endeavor. We were so inspired by the amount of interest and support shown leading up to, throughout, and even following that first campaign, that our decision to launch a second came easy!

We are seeking to raise funds for a down payment on our construction loan for our new base of operations on Milwaukee’s outer harbor. There has never been a more important time for our work. Demand is growing rapidly due to increased needs for climate resiliency, shoreline stabilization, habitat restoration, and the desire for improved recreational access to our three rivers and Lake Michigan.

We need to ratchet up our ecological restoration machine to meet the pace of habitat degradation and the effects of climate change. The new facility will optimize that operationally and help put holistic waterfront restoration on the map in the Freshwater Capital of the World. Our Port and our City is at the helm of positive change for our community.

To achieve this growth, we have launched a campaign with Honeycomb Credit which provides a way for people to invest in small businesses in their community. Watch our video and follow the link below to learn how you can invest with us!

Learn more about our campaign

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Putting Nature to Work: Fresh Coast Interns Dig Into Green Infrastructure

Amber Shesler — Fri, 10 Jun 2022 16:44:52 +0000

On Tuesday Mike Marek led his 12^th training of the MMSD Fresh Coast Interns. This partnership with Clean Wisconsin and Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage District has been a long running success story with now close to 100 student interns trained on the basics of Green Infrastructure. This was a group of 8 students that are studying civil engineering, environmental engineering, environmental geography, economics, and a few other combined focus areas.

We do a ½ day in the classroom and a ½ day in the field of rain barrel and rain garden installation. These students get a ton of information and always ask great questions and leave pretty charged up about Green Infrastructure. Mike of course shares a few old stories about how he got into this and where we can go from here with green infrastructure. That includes the important conversation about social, environmental, and economic justice. This project has focused the installations in the 30^th St Industrial Corridor neighborhood that has been hit by disinvestment (until recently) and has been affected by historic flooding due to its position in the watershed. Much of this flooding has been alleviated by the Green Infrastructure work and the 30^th St Wet Weather Relief Project that Marek helped design in 2016 and was constructed in 2017).

The best part of the classroom portion of the day is the Soil Test in which students participate in a comparative experiment of 4 different soil medias used in Green Infrastructure. This is a hands-on demo that we learn so much from our direct observations and it re-teaches us to think about these things as high-performance systems. This year we included a tour of some of the residential sites built in the past years. We finished with lunch at the Wet Weather Relief project basins that are now maturing and performing quite well. It was a lovely day!

This project and teaching students about Green Infrastructure and how we can fix our urban watershed is always a huge inspiration to us here as the students bring big energy and informed passion to their study and their work.

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Our Restoration Ecologist, Jamie, is moving on to her dream job!

Amber Shesler — Thu, 24 Mar 2022 16:09:50 +0000

We want to wish Jamie Van (Jamie VandenLangenberg) a joyful farewell and a huge THANK YOU as she flies north to her natural habitat. She has landed herself her dream job as the Water Program Director at North Lakeland Discovery Center and we know that it was meant to be. She and her amazing family spent so much time up north that this was the next logical step. We will miss her here at Marek and hope to visit soon in Manitowish Waters!

As our Operations Manager and Restoration Ecologist Jamie wore a lot of hats and did it with a cheerful smile and a contagious positive attitude. Her plant knowledge and comprehensive understanding of ecological systems was a strong suit and she shared that openly. She also interviewed many candidates for positions here and helped make the team we are today, which we are all proud to be a part of. We are stronger and better for Jamie’s work and passion.

She gave new team members religion about what we do here at Marek. If you know us, you know that our practice is as close to religion as it is to craft and to art and to science. We practice whole heartedly and truly believe that we’re doing the most important work on Earth. She knew us as a firm well and she believed in our mission and knew our tools, our methods, and our team members well. She will be missed! With a deep bow we all wish her all the best!

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Plant of the Week: Calopogon tuberosus

Justine — Fri, 20 Mar 2020 16:29:49 +0000

Plant of the Week! This isn’t a spring-blooming plant, but we could all use some bright flowers right now. The Grass-pink is a native orchid found in high-quality bogs, fens, and wet meadows. It grows a single long, linear leaf and a raceme of 2-15 magenta (or rarely, white) flowers. It is a small but beautiful plant. Many pollinators visit the flowers, including bumblebees, halictid bees, beetles and butterflies. However, the flowers don’t provide the insects with any resources: instead, they trick them with pseudo-stamens. Bees are the primary pollinator because their weight on the flower causes the hinged lip of the flower to collapse into itself, attaching pollen on the back of the bee. If the bee makes the same mistake with another Grass-pink, the same mechanism will cause the pollen to contact the stigma, resulting in pollination. Start looking for the flowers in mid-June, but please don’t pick them! Grass-pinks are rare in some states as habitat loss and over-collecting have caused populations to decline.

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Plant of the Week! Wisconsin’s Hepaticas

Justine — Fri, 06 Mar 2020 16:14:17 +0000

Plant of the Week! It’s a little bit early now, but soon we will be seeing native ephemeral wildflowers emerging from last year’s leaf litter. One of the plants you might be lucky enough to encounter is Hepatica (Anemone acutiloba or A. americana). The two species here in Wisconsin are Sharp-lobed Hepatica and Round-lobed Hepatica, the main difference being the bluntness or “pointy-ness” of the three lobes of the leaf. The first thing you might notice about this plant, other than the beautiful delicate flowers, is how furry it is! Dense, downy trichomes cover the plant and are very noticeable as it first emerges. This protects the plant against the cold and wind. Another fascinating characteristic about this wildflower is how it reproduces: The capsule that holds the seeds also contains an oily structure that attracts ants. The ants take the seed capsules to their nests, essentially planting the seeds as they do. Start looking for this spring species in high quality woodlands next month.

Flowers can be white, light pink, or blue

The plants are densely covered in furry trichomes to help protect it against cold, windy weather.

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Plant of the Week: Invasive Epipactis helleborine

Justine — Fri, 28 Feb 2020 18:15:30 +0000

Plant of the Week! It’s the most interesting invasive species you’ve (maybe) never heard of! Epipactis helleborine is an invasive ORCHID. Orchids seem like fragile plants with super specific needs, not something to be compared with Garlic Mustard and Dame’s Rocket. Well, in this case both characteristics are true! Helleborine orchids rely on specific fungi to survive, and on wasps to reproduce. They attract the wasps by mimicking the scent of insect-damaged leaves, then get them to stick around by making them inebriated. Intrigued? Check out this article about Helleborine Orchid by In Defense of Plants. And if you have this interesting, but invasive plant in your yard, try to dig out the entire root system. Broken underground roots can grow new plants. (Photo from Wiscflora, http://wisflora.herbarium.wisc.edu/taxa/index.php?taxon=3529)

http://www.indefenseofplants.com/blog/2015/7/23/an-orchid-invader-with-an-interesting-ecology

Photo from Wiscflora, http://wisflora.herbarium.wisc.edu/taxa/index.php?taxon=3529

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Plant of the Week: Parthenosissus quinquefolia

Justine — Tue, 18 Feb 2020 17:48:25 +0000

Plant of the Week! It’s everywhere- you might even have it in your yard without realizing it. Parthenosissus quinquefolia, Virginia Creeper, is a widespread and aggressive woody vine that grows over the ground, up trees, and on flat surfaces, including buildings. It’s often considered a weed, particularly when the vines climb up and cover trees, where they can outcompete the trees for sunlight. However, Virginia Creeper is also a cultivated plant and even has some cultivars. The leaves turn bright red in the fall, and its berries are eaten by birds (though poisonous to humans). If you like the look of Virginia Creeper’s relative, Boston Ivy (Parthenosissus tricuspidata), give this native alternative a try.

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Plant of the Week: Toxicodenron vernix

Justine — Thu, 06 Feb 2020 17:28:23 +0000

Plant of the Week! An uncommon shrub that doesn’t get much positive attention given its name, Poison Sumac (Toxicodendron vernix) is actually a really cool plant to encounter, provided you keep some distance! Poison Sumac only inhabits high quality wetlands, so seeing it means you’re probably in a pretty special place. It looks much like other native sumac, but the leaf margins are smooth, and the berries are white rather than red. The flowers provide pollen and nectar to bees and flies, and it is a host plant for moth caterpillars. Berries provide winter food for birds. The “poison” component of the plant is a compound called urushiol, and it only affects a few mammals, including humans. The rash we experience when exposed to poison ivy, sumac, or oak is actually an allergic reaction to urushiol. To learn more about Poison Sumac, check out this article by In Defense of Plants:

http://www.indefenseofplants.com/blog/2020/1/28/a-closer-look-at-poison-sumac

Photo from In Defense of Plants

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