Cautley spent her youth in Asia and the Pacific, where her father was stationed in the Navy, yet was orphaned at twelve, at which point she was sent to live with relatives in Brooklyn.
One of the interesting aspects of this design, which was applied extensively in her later work, was a use of native plants to imbue the landscape with a strong sense of place.
Cautley’s planting plans filled the rear court of each house with sycamores and flowering shrubs, enclosed by low hedgerows that delineated each parcel while still fostering a communal sensibility among neighbors.
She envisioned a community with no backyards, but simply small lawns or plots that did not encumber the extended view from the porch of each house out to the large central park, which was accessible only to neighborhood residents.
Plant materials were selected for minimal maintenance and for all seasons, with a mind for how they would appear in years to come, and each resident had the option of personalizing his or her garden with different choices of trees, hedges, and shrubs.
In her designs, Cautley was sensitive to the need for a greater sense of ownership within the community, as well as an appreciation for what she saw as the rapidly disappearing natural landscape of New Jersey.