Back in the days when Bucky and Betty Kessinger’s home was built, ranch-style houses with manicured lawns were a must-have in suburban Kansas City. They noticed their 40-year-old, one-story home needed some help after purchasing it in 1985 — it greatly needed a landscaping facelift.

For the two seasoned Johnson County Master Gardeners, transforming the property’s former lawn into a gardener’s dream was more than simply digging a hole and inserting a new plant in the ground. They continue to beautify their early 1960s-era house with new plantings and innovative landscape features.

Designing their wraparound patio and working in their gardens was a way for Betty and Bucky to be involved with nature or, as Betty describes it, to find a “connection with our world.”

“Our philosophy has always been to have an outside room,” she says, “to make the outside part of the inside and the inside part of the outside.”

They replaced a plain back lawn with a spacious brick patio, added a brick retaining wall and privacy hedge covered with flowers, and filled nearly every corner of their property with a variety of sun- and shade-loving plants.

Family heirloom pieces and eclectic outdoor furniture give the patio an open-air café feel. The Kessingers even added a sunroom off the master suite and multiple glass French doors inside to maximize views of the shady garden spaces.

“I love what we’ve added,” says Bucky, who conceptualized many of the landscaping ideas himself. “The back patio and house tie together.”

Inspired Setting
Every couple of years, the Kessingers add a new dimension to their land: a shade garden off the back drive, a row of trees along the privacy hedge, additional plants for their growing collections of hostas, azaleas and irises.

The focal point of their property is the 2,500-square-foot brick patio in the backyard. Wrapping around the outside of the home where the family room, screened-in porch and master suite are located, the antique red brick patio complements the encompassing plantings.

“The benefits are that we don’t have to mow and there is very little weeding,” Betty says of their backyard, which was filled with tall grass before they bought the home.

Patio furniture is a blend of old and new. Bucky’s mother’s old Singer sewing machine table is now stocked with potted plants. A wooden footstool bench, made by Bucky’s father, dates back 45 years. George VanVoorst, owner of Kildeer Farms, recently designed a bench to go with the footstool. Newer chairs and tables with wrought iron bases and marble tops provide plenty of outdoor seating.

The Kessingers added a large brick retaining wall off the patio the year they purchased the home. Brick mason Joe McKenna completed most of the work, and Betty and Bucky added a stucco facade. The wall is covered with climbing ivy. Also off the patio is a privacy hedge consisting of natural rock formations, hemlocks, tall cedar trees, and perennials and annuals trimmed to allow the rocks to show.

Betty refers to the hedge’s masses of azaleas, hostas, impatiens and ivy as a “hodge podge” of plants. “They are of different heights and textures.”

A row of 10-foot cedar trees creates a natural privacy “wall” between the backyard and a neighbor’s yard, which is elevated over the Kessingers’ property.

Masses of Plants
Bursts of flowering color from nearly every corner of the yard instantly catches the eye. A growing collection of annuals and perennials can be found off the patio, in the privacy hedge, on either side of the back driveway and in front of the house. There are 100 varieties of shade-loving hostas, 12 varieties of crepe myrtles, 15 varieties each of hardy geraniums and astilbe, and 25 varieties of irises.

Perennials have found their home on both sides of the back drive. On the east side, a cottage perennial border consists of phlox, hardy geranium, multiple varieties of irises, day lilies, tiger lilies, 10 crepe myrtle varieties and other plantings. The Kessingers planted this garden 18 years ago.

The perennial garden on the west side is shady because of the towering red maple that provides sun cover. Planted 20 years ago, the tree has become a focal point of the west garden. Hydrangeas, Siberian iris, hostas, astilbies, toad lilies, heuchera and other plants can be found there. A newer shade garden along the home’s south side was started four years ago and includes some of the same types of plants as in the west garden.

Ground covers of purple ajuga and vinca, as well as barberry, spirea, azaleas and yew are planted along the front porch’s walkway.

In addition to smaller plants, trees are also a prominent part of the landscape. Bucky, an arbor enthusiast, had a great influence on the foliage present in the yard: white pine, spruce, Japanese maples, dogwood, red bud, hemlock, golden rain, apple, pear and pagoda.

Hardscaping details include a flagstone path along the shade gardens, bordered by hostas. A rock bench complements the rocky stepping ground nearby. The front porch that Bucky laid consists of brick that blends with the home’s shake shingle roof and exterior surfaces of brick, sandstone and cream-colored siding.


Resource Book:
Remodeling: Twin Oaks Remodeling
Garden Lighting: Doctor’s Landscaping
Brick Masonry: Joe McKenna
Primary Nursery: Goodwin Pro Turf
Patio Furniture: Seasonal Concepts and many antique stores
Custom Patio Bench: George VanVoorst of Kildeer Farms
Garden Lighting: Doctor’s Lawn & Landscape
Interior Décor: Jane Ann Bolte of Dalton Interiors
French Doors: Pacific Mutual Sash and Door