Expanding Into Nursery and Landscape Topics

I’ve been hearing from Extension agents, landscape professionals, and community partners that nursery and landscape questions are increasingly common—especially around plant sourcing, design approaches, and how to create resilient, low‑input landscapes in Kansas. To help meet that need, I’m going to start weaving more nursery and landscape content into this e‑newsletter.

Over the next few months, I’ll share short educational pieces on topics like understanding how nursery production influences plant quality at the point of sale, choosing practices that support long‑term landscape sustainability, and using naturalistic design elements to reduce maintenance while enhancing ecological function. My goal is to provide practical, research-based guidance you can use right away in conversations with clients, customers, and communities.

We’ll still include turf content, of course—but through a slightly wider lens that connects turf, nursery, and landscape work into a more integrated picture of Kansas green spaces.

What questions are you hearing most often?
What topics would be most helpful for me to cover?

Feel free to reach out anytime. Your insights will shape where this new content goes next.

In the meantime, here are a couple of learning opportunities that might interest you:

• Today’s K-State Garden Hour speaker was me! I spoke about Naturalistic Landscape Design. I think there is a lot of opportunity for landscape contractors to support this trend in Kansas landscapes. The recording will be posted to the website tomorrow (https://hnr.k-state.edu/extension/consumer-horticulture/garden-hour/).
• Nursery production colleagues have been working hard on a national Specialty Crop Research Initiative project all about automation in the nursery industry–LEAP: Labor, Efficiency, Automation, and Production. Check out the project website and sign up for their webinar series, “LEAP FORWARD: Innovations in Nursery Automation” (https://www.nurseryleap.com/). The next webinar is Tuesday, March 17, 2026, at 1:00 pm CST, featuring Rayne Gibson, Owner of Taproots Horticulture Consulting, “Empowering Green Industry Leaders with Insights, Expertise, and Community.” They’re only 30 minutes! The archive is here: https://www.nurseryleap.com/leap-forward.html.

—
Cheryl Boyer, Ph.D.
Professor, Nursery Crop Production and Marketing
Department of Horticulture and Natural Resources
Kansas State University
crboyer@KSU.edu