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Scott and Sarah Buerkley’s home just outside of Stillwater, Minnesota has a peaceful cottage setting. Coming up the driveway, guests encounter three different gardens. First, there is a kidney-shaped garden with an iron gazebo, fountains and beautiful plantings. Next, there’s a fenced-in garden made up of raised beds filled with vegetables, herbs and cutting plants that are perfectly cared for. Finally, you’ll enter a circle drive with a formal, European feel. In the middle is a beautiful fountain surrounded by vibrant annuals and an evergreen hedge.

Sarah Buerkley is the visionary behind the idyllic setting. Over ten years ago, while staying home with her two young sons, she developed an interest in gardening and landscaping. “I took the boys outside every day because they were happiest out there and I started thinking of what I could do around the yard so I started looking at books and learning that way,” Sarah says. “I just started trying stuff in my own garden and really most of my experience comes from trying things and the successes and failures of the actual garden.”

“I was doing my own thing at my house for awhile. Then my neighbors started asking questions and I began helping them with their window boxes and gardens,” she remembers. It wasn’t long before her neighbor’s inquiries developed into more. In 2000, Sarah attended one of Oprah Winfrey’s Live Your Best Life events. “When I was there, she asked us to close our eyes and see your best self. Although I had no interest in starting a business at that time, I had a vision of being in a garden and it seemed so amazing,” she says. “My whole life I thought I would be a designer – I went to school for retail and fashion. Who knew landscaping would be something I was good at?”

That same year, Sarah took the leap and turned her love for gardening into a business: Sarah’s Cottage Creations. “When I started my business, we got a couple really good commercial jobs. I did the work on my own for about four years and then I began hiring more and more people. It just grew from there!” In a short period of time, her small staff grew to 25 people.

As her business name reflects, Sarah has a talent for designing cottage gardens: the style of bringing vegetables and fruits, annuals and perennials, trees and shrubs all into the same space. She also excels at filling gardens with full-season color. “I’m really into mixing perennials and annuals in the gardens so they look full and colorful and last all summer long,” she says.

Sarah also enjoys designing gardens with permaculture in mind, which is sustainable land use. “Permaculture is becoming more desirable and it’s something everybody can do,” Sarah says. “It allows me to tie in the green way of design into the gardens. Some examples of this trend are rain gardens and rain barrels, growing your own fruits and vegetables and taking a look at each person’s footprint.”

Scott and Sarah’s sons Ross, 13, and Shane, 11, also show an interest in the landscaping business. “Ross has been begging us to let him work with us for years and I’ve been telling him he’s too young. Last year was the first year I told Ross he could work with the crew a couple days a week,” Sarah says. “This summer he joined the family full time and Shane gets started next summer.” Both of their sons have developed a lifestyle and appreciation for the beauty gardening brings. “It’s nice that it’s something they want to do.”

Since Sarah’s Cottage Creations has become a family business, they are sure to always make time for fun. “We have a lake place so we try to get away to that every few weekends. It’s a way of life but we try to mix fun in with it!”

While clients are thrilled with the design and color Sarah offers, she says, “Clients are always so surprised by how great our staff is and how we all work together so well. We all enjoy what we’re doing.” Sarah’s Cottage Creations is available throughout the metro area and their work is getting noticed. Over the last three years they won six awards from the Minnesota Nursery and Landscape Association. “The extra recognition has really snow-balled our business and proven to the public we are the real deal,” Sarah says.

“What we do is really personal,” Sarah says. She finds it rewarding when a client loves the finished work. “What I find in a garden is a sense of peace from the rest of the world – to be able to give that to other people is why I’m doing this!”