Gardening legacy of Dennis Patton
It was not surprising to me that Dennis Patton’s final column was about the Master Gardeners biennial garden tour on May 17-18 in Johnson County.
The garden tour was the brainchild of Dennis and the late Lyn Holiday, a Master Gardener from the class of 1994, who organized the first event in 1998, as another opportunity to showcase the beauty and value of gardening in Johnson County.
He wrote this column while battling lung cancer. I received it on Jan. 26 on the eve of his final days in hospice care.
His enthusiasm for life manifested itself in his love and passion of gardening, vast technical skills and great growing tips and advice. In a eulogy by Tara Markey, director at the K-State Johnson County Research and Extension Office, Dennis was described as “a true educator no matter if it was in a classroom setting or in a garden.”
Dennis was the kind of person you’d want to be your friend, peer or neighbor. He was the nicest person you’d ever meet and fortunate to have ever known. He was just a pleasant, cheerful person with a happy voice, an eager voice ready to share his fondness and advice about gardening and flowers.
He enjoyed putting his gardening wisdom into words. He wrote a gardening column for the Kansas City Star for more than 30 years, the Kansas City Gardener magazine for more than 27 years as well as for The Best Times over many years.
He offered practical advice and sometimes with a dose of humor. He once told readers to “Kiss your ash goodbye” in an article about the aggressive, evasive emerald ash borer. He also reminded us: “Life is too short for ugly plants.”
His columns contained a folksy tone that never lectured. They instead shared insight and knowledge that was unique to Johnson County’s growing climate.
Dennis was always uplifting and cheerful, and just a downright wonderful personality. He encouraged many people, young and older, to take up gardening, to volunteer at community gardens and become Master Gardeners, to go plant something and watch it grow, to truly stop and smell the roses in busy lives.
He called the close-knit community of gardeners in Johnson County, K-State Extension staff and local Master Gardeners his “family.”
His legacy endures with the upcoming garden tour. In his final column, Dennis listed brief details of each of the six gardens for residents to visit, including the Patton Garden. It features “a meaningful collection of plants and budget-friendly landscape” and looks like “a million bucks.” The garden was the “result of talent, hard work, ingenuity and know-how” by the homeowner/gardener … Dennis Patton. He purposely omitted that it was his garden on the tour at his home in Overland Park.
Tickets for the garden tour are $25 until May 1 and $30 after that date. More information on purchasing tickets and the six gardens is available at johnson.k-state.edu or by calling 913-715-7000.
The garden tour is one of Dennis Patton’s bequests to our community, now and beyond. For more than four decades, he planted seeds of kindness and a gardening zest as much as flower seeds in his garden.
Dennis was special as a husband and father, a gardening expert, a mentor, a writer, a friend.
He is truly missed.