Amy Bertrand | Post-Dispatch
A stone figure decorates the side of one of the waterfalls in Rodney Jarboe’s garden as black-eyed susans climb the hill.
Allie Schallert, Post-Dispatch
When visitors come to Rodney Jarboe’s back yard, first they gasp at its beauty. Next they comment on the sound of the water. A splash here, a trickle there. A whoosh here, a gurgle there.
“It’s very soothing,” says Jarboe, 70.
His Town and Country garden, which features a bridge, a Mayan temple, a bocce ball court and three levels of ponds with streams enveloped by an array of colorful flowers, was the first-place winner in our annual Great Garden Contest.
Judges from the Missouri Botanical Garden convened to select winners from our entries.
“When we met to discuss the winners, all of us had this one selected as our top pick,” says Daria McKelvey, supervisor for home gardening information and outreach at the Missouri Botanical Garden’s Kemper Center. “We liked the cottage-like feel of the garden and their use of plants. There are so many different colors and textures, which are very eye-catching. It’s quite a striking contrast to the turf-grass lawn next to it.”
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Jarboe leaned into his professional background when designing and creating his garden. His company, Replications Unlimited, is a fabricator and outfitter for theme parks (like Disney) and other destinations.
Rodney Jarboe poses among the flowers and waterfalls of his garden on July 11, 2025.
Allie Schallert photos, Post-Dispatch
When he and his wife, Regina, were looking for a home in a new subdivision about 25 years ago, they chose a lot with a flat yard, with dreams of building a pool. Or so they thought. They later learned the developer would be using some of his earth for homes across the street, leaving the Jarboes with a 50-foot elevation change.
What to do with it? His water feature up a hillside was the solution. It’s 60 feet long in total with a 15-foot rise in elevation. At the top? A bocce ball court.
Easter Island-style Moai statues act as fountains as part of a water feature in Jarboe’s garden.
Allie Schallert, Post-Dispatch
“In the end that worked out really well for us,” he says. For the past several years his pond has been featured on the St. Louis Water Garden Society’s pond tour.
“I don’t even have people over until the end of June,” he says, because he’s busy making his garden perfect for the tour.
Jarboe says he grew up helping his mom and grandma in the garden. In fact today, his sister helps him from time to time. And his wife fills their patio planters with colorful flowers. But most of the work falls to Jarboe. “I’ve spent 20 years planting and splitting and replanting, and over time you learn how to balance the perennials and annuals so you can have color year-round.”
The Mayan-themed bocce ball court at Rodney Jarboe’s garden.
Allie Schallert, Post-Dispatch
He fills baskets with spreading petunias and vinca so as the petunias die back, the vinca take over. In the yard, and around the water features he plants black-eyed susans, daisies, purple coneflowers, liatris, water iris, daylilies, dahlias and gladiolas.
“They really have more depth to them over the past five years,” he says.
A bridge crosses over a waterfall in Jarboe’s garden.
Allie Schallert, Post-Dispatch
But his yard goes beyond the water features and flowers. Sprinkled throughout are several Moai statues, replicas of the famous pieces from Easter Island, built at Jarboe’s company. At the top of the hill is a replica of Mayan ruins that Jarboe designed and built himself. “People say it looks really authentic,” he says.
After June, when the hard work is done, he lets his watering system do most of the work, though he still spends a couple of weekends a month weeding and doing basic upkeep. He loves hosting people for evenings on the patio and bocce games.
But he also loves his time alone in the garden. “There is a zen to sitting back and listening to the water. I really enjoy it.”
What does his wife think? “She thinks it’s a lot of work,” he says with a laugh.
A Japanese garden
Judy Blix’s Japanese garden at her home in Chesterfield
Eli Randolph, Post-Dispatch
When Judy Blix and her husband, Ray, built their house in Chesterfield in 1976, they cleared enough land for the home, a vegetable garden and a playground for their kids.
Years later, as the trees grew and the kids outgrew the playground, Judy Blix had another idea: a Japanese garden.
Judy Blix stands with one of her Japanese lanterns.
Eli Randolph photos, Post-Dispatch
She called a friend who had a Japanese garden and the friend suggested she start with a kousa dogwood and work from there. “Kousa dogwoods bloom after our native dogwoods, and when it blooms it looks like snow on a mountain because it grows in layers.”
Next, the friend suggested Blix get some crane statuary. She found a couple at Sam’s Club but wasn’t quite ready to place them in the garden she had barely started. “They sat in my living room for years,” she says with a laugh.
It wasn’t until COVID that she initiated her master plan to create a Japanese garden. She enlisted a landscaper to help her move rocks, create paths and dig holes, all based on her design.
Judy Blix opens her torri gate to her Japanese garden at her home in Chesterfield. Blix says that when you pass though the gate “all evil is vanquished.”
Eli Randolph, Post-Dispatch
“I added a pathway with a bigger clearing and added a bench, and added specific plants for their textures and colors. I had been growing flowers to do arrangements for the Federated Garden Club.”
Blix says there aren’t a lot of plants, but she makes good use of the ones she does have: Japanese iris, tree peony, daylilies and phlox. She also uses unusual trees to good effect: a Japanese red dragon maple and a pompom pine.
Multiple statues decorate Judy Blix’s Japanese garden.
Eli Randolph, Post-Dispatch
She delved into Japanese design and Ikenobo, the oldest school of Japanese flower arranging. “I started thinking in the Japanese way.” Her friend passed away, and her friend’s daughter left Blix the bench and a lantern now in her garden. “Those are beautiful elements that make my garden special.”
The Missouri Botanical judges thought she nailed it.
“We thought this garden did a great job at capturing the peaceful nature of a Japanese garden,” says McKelvey. “It feels inviting to walk through or sit down in for contemplation. We also liked their use of Japanese garden elements, including the statuary, stone paths, plants with texture, and even the gate, which resembles a torii gate denoting the entrance to sacred spaces or shrines often seen in Japan.”
Two crane statues stand in the Japanese garden of Judy Blix at her home in Chesterfield.
Eli Randolph, Post-Dispatch
Blix designed the torii gates herself and had them installed. “It is said that all evil is vanquished as you pass through the torii gates and you enter tranquility.”
She continues to try to build the garden with specimen plants. “I want a black cherry bamboo. This is not a cheap process and sometimes the plants don’t always make it,” she says.
She occasionally changes the paths that lead through her garden. “It takes your eye there and makes it more interesting and yet you are enclosed by my woods.” She describes the Japanese practice of forest bathing or shinrin-yoku, immersing oneself in the forest atmosphere using all five senses to promote well-being. “You listen for the sounds of nature, feel the wind, see the way the winds show sun, and you meditate.
“My favorite time in the garden is in morning, I get a cup of coffee and sit on my bench and enjoy the solitude. And you just sit in your quietness, but I also love having people over to walk the journey with me.”
Her husband, Ray, leaves most of the work to her, but he did recently build a ground-level fountain to give the garden a water element.
“It adds to the ambiance,” she says.
Honorable mentions
Cozy City Garden by Mark Woerz of Soulard.
The Villa, Jodie Rugart of Frontenac
Terrace Dream Garden, Teri Westbrook of Troy, Missouri
Post-Dispatch photographers capture tens of thousands of images every year. See some of their best work that was either taken in June 2025 in this video. Edited by Jenna Jones.
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