Tour showcases gardener’s passion for plants

Though her two-acre garden is next to Quivira Road, Phyllis McKinney has created a space away from the city rush.

“I can spend the whole day out here,” McKinney said.

A team of 25 appointed Johnson County master gardeners was tapped this year to grow McKinney’s “Country Casual” garden. It will be featured in the Johnson County Kansas State University Research and Extension Master Garden Tour on May 17. McKinney’s is one of the biggest on the private-garden tour. “Every plant is in its place,” extension agent Dennis Patton said.

“What I think makes the walk rewarding is it is a relaxing escape from the hustle and bustle of city life,” Patton said.

McKinney dreamed of having space like this. She moved 12 years ago from an urban home to this former horse pasture in Olathe.

“The lot I had to work with then was like a postage stamp,” McKinney said. “This feels more like we’re out in the country.”

The former nurse said that she always had been interested in gardening, but that the creative aspect of it helped make it a passion.

“I used to come out and pull weeds to de-stress,” McKinney said. “It’s very peaceful here. I feel I have my own little world here. You hear the birds singing. It’s a de-stresser.” McKinney learned early this year that she has breast cancer. When she isn’t working in her garden, she takes radiation treatments. Her garden is beginning to bloom, and her health prognosis, she said, is good.

“The garden has taken my mind off a lot of things,” McKinney said. “I’d run down the street and get radiation treatment and come back to the stress reliever. It’s been very healing.”

McKinney used elements in the space that she inherited when she bought it. Fence posts formerly used to corral horses are now stands for birdhouses. A school bell she got from neighbors inspired the development of a garden full of daylilies.

“I put in plants I like —unusual plants, hard-to-find plants,” McKinney said. “I like to mix colors like they are in nature.”

McKinney hesitates to call gardening a “hobby.” If anything, she hopes the tour will help others develop a passion for plants.

“More and more people are getting into it,” McKinney said. “This is one way people can learn about gardening. See what it is. See what people have done, and then go home to do it.”

The six gardens on the tour are varied for such learning, Patton said. One includes “native” plants, “what some might call weeds,” meant to attract butterflies.

“They’re all wonderful gardeners picked from the standpoint of beauty, diversity, the use of sun and shade,” Patton said.

Each tour will have master gardeners to answer questions.

“They’ve learned the garden; they’ve learned the history of the plants,” Patton said. “They will be there to answer any question.”

McKinney hopes those on the tour will learn about some of the “green” elements in the garden. Her vegetable garden is composted. She also uses a rain barrel to recycle precipitation.

McKinney said she expects most of her blooms to come in closer to June. She said the cold and wet weather has delayed blooming.

“Gardening is tough in Kansas because of the difficult weather patterns,” McKinney said. “If you can garden in Kansas, you can garden anywhere.”

To combat difficult weather, McKinney studies plants online, in magazines and at the library. She also plans.

“I need to learn as much as I can if I am going to make it a success,” McKinney said.

Tickets and maps are available for the garden tour at all Hen House Markets in Johnson County. For more information, visit http://www.johnson.ksu.edu.