It is hard for Brian Davies to remember a time when he wasn’t tending a garden. Growing up in north St. Louis County, he happily took over his parent’s garden. When he bought a home in University City, most of the yard became a garden. Six years ago, he and his wife, Jennifer, moved to the Central West End, where he is again making gardening magic.

But pulling that garden rabbit out of an urban landscape hat was not without its challenges and setbacks. The design, which included a swimming pool, was “a bit more formal” than Brian preferred. The existing roses were struggling. He began by determining what type of soil he was dealing with and how to enhance it.  Then, a year after they moved in, a redbud tree that shaded a good portion of the yard died.

“There had been a huge shade garden and the hostas fried the first summer after the tree was taken down,” he recalled. “It was quite a challenge to figure out how to move stuff around.”

A banker by profession, much of Brian’s gardening knowledge has come from years of experience with his lifelong hobby and trial and error. “I subscribe to a couple of gardening magazines, and I have friends who are Master Gardeners who I’ve asked for advice,” he explains.

Recently, he has begun adding more and more Missouri native plants to his garden. “Coneflowers, black-eyed susans and cardinal flowers stay colorful for a long time and attract butterflies and hummingbirds,” he says. “I go to Garden Heights Nursery, and I’m always trying to add new stuff.”

Brian and Jen continually share their garden with friends. “We love entertaining, and we are on the covered porch all the time,” says Brian, noting that they are active in their parish and friends often end up at the garden following parish social functions. The garden and pool also are a great place  for Brian and Jen’s 13-year-old daughter and Brian’s 23-year-old son to hang out with friends.

Brian estimates that he spends about 12 hours a week tending to the garden in the warm weather months; “Six hours on Saturday and six hours on Sunday and then I crack open a cold beer and admire my handiwork,” he says with a laugh.

“What I like most about the garden,” he explains, “is that I am in the middle of the city, but I am in my own little oasis. With the trees and the garden and birds from the birdfeeders, I feel like I am in the country.”