The best gardens come with deep roots, and few are more firmly anchored in the soil than Cindy Thierry’s University City landscape. The front yard borders and berms and the shrubs and perennials that circle the back yard come alive in spring with bursts of color created by Cindy but with tendrils attached to gardens and gardeners who have gone before. 

It is a garden that reflects a partnership, and the beauty and harmony of working together. Although small in square footage, the landscape surrounding the Winchester home of Phil Mueller and Nathan Urben overflows with flowering plants and beautiful trees and shrubs.  

In 1979, writing in the first edition of The Plantsman, a publication of the Royal Horticultural Society, Sandra Raphael, a senior editor in the dictionary department of the Oxford University Press, noted the term “plantsman” is intended to mean a connoisseur of plants or an expert gardener.

It is easy to see why. From a wide terrace spanning multiple rooms in their red brick ranch home in Des Peres, two staircases descend to a jewel-like swimming pool that glitters sapphire blue. Although the space is small, it is picture-perfect. Stands of columnar DeGroot’s Spire and Emerald Green arborvitae, interspersed with burning bush for fall color, provide a buffer from neighboring property. Graceful, billowing Karl Foerster Feather Reed Grass and pyramid-like Golden Threadleaf false cypress soften a wooden privacy fence.

Low-maintenance beauty: Sango Kaku won’t require much work! Mulch will help retain moisture and keep the roots cool. The plant needs little pruning, but if you do opt to prune your plant, avoid doing so in spring when the sap is running.

The homeowner’s driving directions could not be more simple. To discover Top of the Hill Farm, you just keep going. Down the one-lane road, past every turn-off. When you can go no farther, you have arrived.