Former horticulturalist Dennis Patton, the longtime agent at Johnson County K-State Research and Extension Office, will be memorialized next month with the dedication of the demonstration garden there as the Dennis Patton Garden Gallery.
The dedication ceremony will be from 4 to 5:30 p.m., Wednesday, May 21 at the county’s Sunset Drive Office building at 11811 S. Sunset Dr. in Olathe.
Patton was well known to gardeners throughout the Kansas City area. He worked for the extension office for 35 years and was a fixture at gardening events and as a manager of the volunteer Master Gardener program.
He also wrote gardening columns for the Kansas City Star for 30 years.
He died of lung cancer on Min March 2024, at the age of 64 despite having never smoked.
The Johnson County Extension Education Foundation was one of two organizations designated by Patton’s family to receive donations.
In 2007, Patton was instrumental in creating the demonstration garden, which lies on the northeast side of the Sunset office building.
The garden is one of nine educational gardens in the county maintained by the master gardeners, with a variety of plants, trees and shrubs and information about their growing conditions.
Plans are for a new limestone sign and an updated metal sign with the new name honoring Patton.
