I am a certified landscape designer and also a Johnson County Master Gardener. I recommend classes offered by the extension office during the gardening season. The extension master gardeners website is also a great place to find research-based information. Spreaking personally (and not for the Master Gardeners), I get a lot of bad info from garden centers and landscape pros. It isn't all wrong, but you never know who to believe -- unless you consult the Extension Office. Here is a web address:
Johnson County Lawn and Garden
Speaking of Alan Stevens, he is part of our program and yes -- a wonderful man with endless knowledge about horticulture! Definitely take his class if you can.
There is no online Master Gardener program, by the way. It's a program that requires an application in July, and if you're accepted, you go through a 16-week training course, followed by a required number of volunteer hours. People don't join the MG program for their own education. The focus is volunteerism.
I think you're lucky to be starting a garden in Prairie Village! Being a more established area, the soil tends to be much better than down here in south Johnson County, where we're plagued with rock, clay and very little topsoil! You also have trees! The first thing I would do in your situation is keep all your leaves and put them in whatever planting beds you have. they will make for even better soil next spring. I don't know why people put their leaves out for pickup; they're the best soil amendment in the world. In fact, I drove up to Prairie Village this morning to get 8 huge bags of leaves from a friend!
Over the winter, read up on soil basics, plant selection for sun and shade, wet and dry, and the types of pests that typically plague plants in this area.
Here is another very valuable link to a page with other links on it. I urge you to click on the K-State Horticulture Newsletter link and subscribe. Come springtime, you will get weekly updates on what you should be doing in the garden at that time, what pests are around, and how to deal with them. It is SUCH a help.
Johnson County Lawn and Garden>K-State Links
I finished up my college hort classes at Johnson County Community College with a turf science class, and I'll never forget what the teacher told us: If you can grow a nice lawn in Kansas, you can grow one anywhere. This is a tough area for lawn and garden care because we're in a "transition zone" between the cold north and the hot south. Most things we do are a compromise.
Hope that helps, good luck!
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Need an advise about landscaping/gardening classes
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