Behind her single-story home near Frank Elementary School in Perrysburg, Norma Stark built a pathway to
peace.
The public garden she created outlasts her, now cared for by her friends but kept in the same styles and
themes she left behind.
The Norma Stark Memorial Garden and Labyrinth hosts an event in June, will be a stop on the summer garden
tour in Perrysburg in June, and remains open to the public from dusk ’til dawn behind the home at Pine
and South Boundary streets.
“She wanted this place to be meaningful to everybody,” said Kathy Kasprzak, one of Norma’s friends who
now helps run the trust that oversees her garden.
Stark was a master gardener, a music teacher, and she loved people, said Lorraine Caserta, another board
member. “Sometimes you couldn’t tell if she knew somebody for five minutes or five years.”
Norma Stark created her garden in 2007 in memory of her parents, following their deaths in 2005 and 2006.
Her husband, James Stark, still lives part time in their home that fronts the garden, which has won
three first-place awards from the Toledo Botanical Garden’s competition, Caserta said.
“It was incredible the amount of work that she would do with her own two hands,” Kasprzak said of Stark.

The foundation has a “blueprint” of what plants go where in the garden, replacing things as needed to
keep it in line with Stark’s vision.
More than the greenery and plantings, some of which are uncommon to northwestern Ohio, the garden
features a labyrinth structure, a series of “circuits” meant to help people ponder as they stroll along
small stone paths.
Norma Stark enjoyed labyrinths she saw while traveling, so she created one in her backyard. It’s still
the main feature of her garden, which surrounds the stone with features like lenten roses and a weeping
redbud, planted in Norma’s memory.
“You don’t want to just come once, because the plants are always changing,” Kasprzak said.
Each year, the witch hazel is the first to bloom, said Caserta. To the southeast, there’s a paper bark
birch tree, which is “very unique to this area,” Kasprzak said. “Most people don’t even attempt them.”

The labyrinth has nine circuits and is modeled after one at the famous Chartres Cathedral in France. The
paths are sort of a metaphor for life, Caserta said — you can follow one you think is about to meet the
center, only to take a turn you didn’t predict.
“It’s a way to focus, to meditate. But instead of just sitting, you’re moving,” Caserta said.
The setting also provides a place for people to simply sit and relax.
Sometimes, artists will sit in the garden and set up easels to paint. There’s a box with a guest book,
filled with comments from people all over who find the labyrinth registered online at
https://www.veriditas.org
Guests should feel free to park in the driveway or across the street. Groups can arrange visits by
calling 419-410-2496, and the foundation has a slideshow it sometimes presents at garden club meetings,
Caserta said.
The open house is slated 4-5:30 p.m. on July 16 and will feature acoustic guitar music and light
refreshments.