Landscaping in Kansas City lives on Missouri clay that shrinks, swells, and heaves walks, then loses plant tissue to hail. Beds flatten, bark scars, and leaves hole in one pass. Cleanup of that damage is the urgent work. Grade is the lasting work. Soil that slopes into the foundation keeps a basement wet on the next hard rain. Downspouts packed with granules and leaf mash make it worse. Clear the water before you replant for show.
A limb on the roof comes before flowers. Hail-split crotches fail later in ordinary wind. Heaved walks are a trip on the first ice. The same clay that lifts the walk can pull away from the foundation in a dry spell and then slam shut in a wet one. Say if doors stick. Shrubs in the splash zone rot. A west-facing bed takes the storms the way the windows do. Seed on a salted edge dies again.
Choose plants that can take hail, heavy clay, and a real freeze, not a mild weekend. Mulch on the trunk rots bark. A swale beats a pipe that dumps water on the neighbor. Say if their grade already sends water to you. Irrigation must be blown out or it becomes a split line. Containers are not a yard rebuild. Edging decides what stays keepable after the first humid summer.
If gutters are full of granules, the yard and the roof are sharing a symptom. Mention it. A bed will not fix a bruised slope. Fungus shows up in crowded humid lawns. A hot week scorches new plants with no water plan. If you are only planning, say so. If water is at the wall or a limb is overhead, say that louder. Stone that has lifted is not a style issue.
Lead with drainage, a heaved walk, or a tree the hail opened. Kansas City clay will keep moving after the leaves grow back. Call the number on this page.