The Kansas Gardener

Profile
Andrew Mitchell, also known professionally as the Kansas Gardener, is a Horticulturalist, Nursery Crops Specialist, and Landscape Maintenance Supervisor for Grimm's. He has a B.S. Degree in Horticulture from Kansas State University and a A.S. Degree in Agronomy from Cloud County Community College. Andrew is a Lifetime Member of the National Home Gardening Club and a member of the American Horticultural Society. He is a regular writer and on the Board of Directors of the Kansas Native Plant Society and the Eternal Hope Worship Center. Andrew lives on an oak-hickory remnant forest edge with his wife and 3 children. He is an avid collector of plant species, and has an interest in heirloom vegetables. Andrew spends his free time in photography, hiking, spending time with his family and church, and working in the garden.

Posts by The Kansas Gardener:

  • Weedy Plants for Pollinators

    Weedy plants in our gardens? In our neat and tidy garden spaces, we do not like the word “weeds”. But weedy plants may not be all that they are made out to be. Many native and naturalized plant species are great plants for pollinators and other insects. We need to determine which to keep and [...]

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  • Purple Flowers of the Mint Family

    Purple flowers are very popular among insect pollinators. Especially those of the mint family. The 5 plants from the mint family that are landscape and garden favorites are as follows: hummingbird mint (agastache species), Catmint (Nepeta species), Perennial Salvia (Salvia species), Russian Sage (Salvia yangii), and Lavender (Lavendula species). Looking closely at the flowers and [...]

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  • Baptisia – May Plant of the Month

    Baptisia is our May Plant of the Month. May is a month of beautiful flowers, of trees, shrubs, and perennials in the central Great Plains and Midwest. Our gardens are loaded with many wonderful blooming plants. So why choose baptisia over all the others? Also known as blue false indigo or wild indigo, this native [...]

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  • Beneficial Insects – An Introduction

    Beneficial insects are garden friends who help us out when we are not aware of them. Most of the time, insects are out in the garden, eating pests before we see anything bad happening. Having a guide to look at when you are trying to identify insects in the garden is important. Knowing which insect [...]

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  • Lilacs – Fragrant Flowers in the Garden

    Lilacs have long been known for their fragrance. In the early days of America, the old-fashioned lilacs were planted around outhouses as a screen, but more importantly to hide the smell. Unfortunately, lilacs back then only bloomed for a few weeks in spring. Now we have reblooming lilacs that they would have loved to be [...]

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  • Build a Butterfly Garden in 9 Steps

    Building a butterfly garden should be on the list for every gardener. You can make your entire garden and landscape a butterfly garden or you can create a small, postage stamp garden specifically for butterflies. Anyone, even balcony gardeners can have a butterfly garden. You can have your own pollinator paradise in 9 easy steps. [...]

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  • 5 Easy to Grow Perennials that are Underused

    There are 5 easy to grow perennials that are vastly underused in our landscapes. As a landscape maintenance foreman, I travel across Northeast Kansas and Southeast Nebraska. While doing so, I observe multiple landscapes and their plantings. What I have found is that most landscapes use the same plant pallette, though different cultivars. It is [...]

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  • Bleeding Hearts – April Plant of the Month

    The bleeding hearts are our 2021 Plant of the Month for April. I love these plants in my garden, as well as the native ones growing in the woods nearby. Each spring I look forward to their fern-like foliage, topped with pink, red, or white “hearts”. There are two separate genuses that the bleeding hearts [...]

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  • Attracting Hummingbirds to the Garden

    Attracting hummingbirds is one of nearly every gardener’s dream. We all want these brightly colored, quick-moving birds flitting about in our gardens. Watching them sparring over mates and territory in the summer is as fascinating as watching the sunset in the Flint Hills of Kansas. But how do we attract hummingbirds to the garden? Can [...]

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