Memories of Home… in the Garden

WHEN LEE CAGLE AND HER HUSBAND TRADED IN APARTMENT LIVING FOR A HOUSE, SHE SAW IT AS AN OPPORTUNITY TO RELIVE A PART OF HER CHILDHOOD.

- ALEXANDRA VOLLMAN

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.”

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.”