The Mequon property was once used for agriculture, but owners Mark and Cheryl Brickman have restored its 15.5 acres to their natural state, which include areas of wetlands and meadows.

If the earth at Mark and Cheryl Brickman’s 15.5-acre Dragonfly Farm could share its memories, it might tell stories about its life nourishing a farmer’s crops, or the years when it was simply the anchor for a lawn dressed in suburban green. Today, though, the land seems to sing in sweet harmony with nature.

This is no accident. Acre by acre, the Brickmans have revitalized their Mequon retreat into a watercolor wash of lush landscapes and outdoor rooms that invite visitors to take a deep breath and savor the view.

During the past 12 years, Cheryl Brickman, a botanist and owner of a landscape design and horticultural consulting firm, has coaxed the farm into an eco-friendly oasis, located just a little more than a mile from the interstate. The couple has made "a lot of conscious decisions," she says, to develop an ecosystem that works on a practical, as well as an aesthetic, level.

A major project was building a barn on the property. It started out as a chicken coop, Brickman explains, but "it sort of mushroom-clouded into this barn." The charming outbuilding is home to the Brickmans’ flock of geese and chickens, including Light Brahma, Araucana and Barred Rock, prized for their pink, blue and green eggs.

"A lot of these are considered very old breeds and heavy breeds," she says, "so they’re more suitable for our winter climate."

The chickens offer a bonus beyond the eggs — as they enjoy the life of free-rangers, they keep the surrounding lawn fertilized and green, without herbicides or pesticides. It’s the kind of lawn "our parents grew up with, with clover and dandelions. That’s the power of poop," Brickman says.

Calico cats Simone and Sophie, daughters of a barn cat, patrol the building for mice. When they’re off-duty, the cats romp in the adjacent herb and cutting garden.

A boardwalk made of ecologically harvested tropical hardwood, impervious to insects, leads to an observation area overlooking the lake.

A wood-burning stove keeps the barn cozy, along with bales of hay and bags of organic feed stored in the loft under its metal roof providing insulation.

Beyond an orchard of heirloom apple and pear trees, the Brickmans maintain two huge compost piles. The compost is turned twice each year and produces a rich, dark soil Brickman calls her "black gold." The secret, she says, is to layer the pile with dry and wet components, including garden and kitchen waste, keeping garbage to a minimum.

The chickens often use the compost heaps to take "dust baths," she says. It’s another method for keeping them mite-free.

Last year, one compost pile produced two surprises — Baby Boo and Jack Be Nimble pumpkin vines that took root and scrambled up the side of the heap.

Destination seating areas are strategically placed throughout Dragonfly Farm, including a Native American-inspired "council circle" surrounded by a grove of young swamp white and burr oak trees. The oaks can handle the area’s heavy soil and, generations from now, Brickman says, the circle will be a shaded retreat in the middle of the farm’s sweeping meadow.

Native plants, such as purple coneflower, attract birds and bees and discourage invasive weed growth. The Brickmans have seen the return of bobolinks and meadowlarks to the property. Since 1966, the bobolink has declined by nearly 2 percent per year in Wisconsin, according to the Wisconsin Bird Conservation Initiative.

Past an alley of flowering crab apple trees, grapevines curl up and over the beams of a recycled timber arbor. The Brickmans sink into a pair of easy chairs on warm evenings to stargaze and enjoy the fragrance of potted night-blooming jasmine and nicotiana plants. Brickman added a twinkling touch to the arbor by hanging balls of tiny white lights, which sparkle in the winter landscape as well.

Walking along one of the farm’s well-maintained grass trails, she points to the varieties of plants brightening the meadow. Mowing the meadow once each year keeps trees at bay and allows coneflowers, stiff goldenrod, butterfly weed, prairie sunflowers, cup plants and coreopsis to thrive. By planting top-quality natives that attract both birds and bees, the Brickmans are able to stave off invasive weeds and woody plants that could easily take over.

"I have bobolinks and meadowlarks, and that’s important because they’re really taking a hit," she says.

Wisconsin’s wetlands and meadows are both disappearing at a high rate, Brickman says, and that’s why they opted not to divide and sell lots on Dragonfly Farm, but to restore the meadow as well as a 2-acre wetland on the property.

A barn houses chickens and geese; fenced-in herb and cutting gardens are protected by a chicken-wire fence.

"The more wetlands we destroy, the more water that goes in the deep tunnel," she says.

When the Brickmans found some plants indigenous to wetlands growing on the farm, they suspected the property once featured a wetland. Working with Ozaukee County officials and the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, the Brickmans scraped out a basin that became a mini-lake. Today, it is home to six varieties of frogs plopping onto water lily pads and turtles basking on a log.

Algae was a problem in the beginning, Brickman says, because the property was once used for agriculture, but now the green gunk has dissipated. The Brickmans managed the cattails and seeded the land surrounding the basin with wetland plants, releasing beetles to control invasive purple loosestrife.

A cloud of grasshoppers rises up with each step Brickman takes on the trail to the wetland. A boardwalk made of ecologically harvested tropical hardwood, impervious to insects, leads to an observation area overlooking the lake. Damsel flies hover over the water, and occasionally, Brickman says, deer come to the water’s edge to drink. Migratory birds make Dragonfly Farm a favorite stop on their journeys.

"This is the best seat in the house," she says, gazing over the water. "When the martins and swallows are here, it’s like watching an ornithological Cirque du Soleil."

To ensure that Dragonfly Farm remains an eco-friendly haven, the Brickmans have put a 13.5-acre conservation easement on the property. Brickman says the Ozaukee Washington Land Trust holds the easement, which guarantees that the protected acreage can never be developed. If the Brickmans should decide to sell, she adds, the trust would help them to find a buyer dedicated to conservation.

Brickman says no one person could maintain Dragonfly Farm alone, so "we have wonderful help and wonderful contractors. They all love this place as much as we do."