Growing up in rural Missouri, Lee Cagle spent much of her time in her mother’s garden.
“My mother always had a garden, and she grew many of the vegetables she couldn’t find in local grocery stores,” says Lee. “Gardening was meditative for her.”
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So nine years ago, when Lee and her husband, Zane Cagle, abandoned apartment living for a home in the Central West End, she saw it as an opportunity to recapture that piece of her childhood. “I’d always lived in an apartment, so my gardening was limited to turning my patio into an oasis,” says Lee.
The home’s outdoor spaces were a large part of what drew the Cagles to the house, particularly the pool, with its stacked-stone waterfall and the side porch with its mosaic tile floor. The yard, however, needed some work. “The whole backyard was English ivy,” Lee recalls. “There were dying trees and rose bushes, several trees that we’ve now taken out.”
With little more than a desire to simply open up the space, she got to work—first by yanking out the English ivy by hand to clear the space and see what the yard really looked like. Then, inspired by her mother and her own love of cooking, Lee pursued a garden. “It’s rewarding when you can prepare a meal from things you’ve grown,” she says. “Chickens were just a natural progression from there.”
Ultimately, the garden became a place for Lee to learn, work with what she had, and discover what the yard could sustain. “I knew I wanted to grow tomatoes, and I thought I wanted to grow green beans, but now I grow tomatoes, herbs, and garlic,” she says.
She learned through trial and error what works and what doesn’t. “I’ve learned not to plant plants so close together, because they get big,” she says with a laugh. “I should have paid more attention to my mom.”
With this insight, and assistance from local nurseries and research trips to Missouri Botanical Garden, Lee developed a vision inspired by the garden of her youth. “My mom used to tell me about her garden in Korea before she moved to the U.S.—Japanese maples, dogwoods, and enormous peonies,” she says.
In 2016, she hired TRC Outdoor to level the ground, remove and plant trees, install a retaining wall, and build a brick patio. “What’s exciting about working with Lee is her willingness to step outside of the traditional landscape concepts we often see in St. Louis,” says Chris Rhodes, owner of TRC Outdoor.
The resulting space is a combination of beauty and practicality—something that was important to the Cagles, who have two children and a dog. “It’s a nice space where, when people come over, we can sit on the side porch and hang out, and the kids can play and swim and we can still see them,” says Lee. “It allows everybody to be outside but kind of doing their own thing.” Eventually, they plan to expand the space further, adding edible landscaping and an outdoor kitchen.
The process of remaking her yard has brought to light Lee’s passion for gardening, and she recently took over as manager of the Central West End Farm. In the yard, Lee says she experiences the powers of gardening that her mother, who died when Lee was 19, must also have felt.
“There is something healing,” she says, “about working in the soil.”
Hear gardening advice from Cagle on the House of Lou podcast.
