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Making a profit from your home garden in Kansas

Johnson’s property of less than 1/16 of an acre can grow an abundance of vegetables.

The Morning Sun
Oct 8, 2020

Excerpt:

Calling her backyard a rabbit patch is not just hyperbole for a Hutchinson urban farmer. Along with rows and rows of carrots, lettuce and turnip greens, Marilyn Johnson grows beets, tomatoes and lots of chard. There is no grass in her backyard – just vegetables and herbs.

Urban gardeners, like Johnson, are increasing nationwide. They are also on the rise in Kansas.

“We’ve seen a huge spike in the interest in (gardening) education,” said Cary Rivard, fruit and vegetable specialist with Kansas State University Research and Extension Office. “There’s a lot of people interested in growing their own garden.”

After living in New York City for decades, Johnson, a native of Topeka, decided to come home to Kansas and start an urban garden. Last year, she scoured several counties looking for the perfect backyard. She found it in Hutchinson.

This past spring, Johnson set to work replacing fencing, pulling out grass, enriching her soil and placing water spigots in appropriate locales. She even bought a double sink, a walk-in cooler and lots of yellow and black buckets.

“I could visualize what it was,” Johnson said. “When I saw it (her backyard), I knew it was right.”

Read the complete article here.