Jake and Connie Pflug’s garden features:

• Plants hardy to Missouri
• Iron Gazebo and fountain
• Courtyard style garden

Tour enthusiasts might remember visiting the garden of Connie and Jake Pflug on previous tours or might have seen their garden featured in FLOWER GARDENING IN KANSAS CITY, by Craig Nienaber (pub . 2003).  That was then—when Connie and Jake lived in Country Downs—this is now.  A new house purchased in 2004, with the yard a major consideration, has caused them to reinvent a garden oasis from a blank canvas.

“Jake and I love to put our mind and hearts together to create a garden from scratch and that is what we have been doing here since we moved in”, Connie confessed.  Having owned a greenhouse for a few years gives the Pflug’s a step up on choosing plantings just right for the Midwest climate.  Perimeter plantings of bushes and ornamental trees give them blooms and color, define the side yards and are all hardy to Missouri.  They wanted a focal point for the garden and chose a wrought iron gazebo and fountain.  Jake constructed the gazebo, the stone walls and designed the back fence.  Their primary goal was a yard that would offer a courtyard style garden that was very private.  Jake removed all existing soil when creating the circular beds and replaced it with a mixture of top soil, perlite and spaghmum peat.  Connie finished the job by planting autumn clematis, moon flower vine, sweet pea vines, ferns and a Japanese red maple.  English ivy on the fence is stretching out to create a green wall, the perfect backdrop to the garden. During their greenhouse days, the Pflugs grew 15,000 geraniums from cuttings and other annuals from seeds.  Old habits still prevail, and you will find lots and lots of annuals Connie still grows from seeds and cuttings.