Where It Started

My relationship with the soil started in Lansing, Kansas, working alongside my Dad. The ground there was rough — compacted, depleted, the kind that fights back when you try to dig into it. We spent years building it back up, turning bad earth into something that could actually grow food. Along the way we found old relics buried in the dirt, raised rabbits, learned what the land was telling us.

Then we sold that house. We moved further out into the country and started the whole thing over again from scratch — new soil, new challenges, new garden. That cycle of building, losing, and rebuilding taught me more than any book ever could.

Where I Am Now

I'm 38 years old and doing it entirely on my own now. The garden is mine to plan, plant, tend, and harvest — and I wouldn't have it any other way. Right now in mid-March the season is just waking up. I've got cool-season crops going in:

The warm-season planting is still weeks away — last frost around April 15th. But that window right now, before things really get moving, is the best time to start peas and greens in Zone 6a. That's exactly the kind of hyperlocal timing this site is built around.

Why I Built This

Every spring I'd find myself bouncing between five different websites — one for frost dates, one for planting schedules, one for pest ID, another for soil amendments. None of them knew what Kansas City winters actually look like. None of them were calibrated to our last frost date or our growing season length. They were written for everywhere, which really means they were written for nowhere in particular.

I wanted one place that had it all — specific to Zone 6a, specific to the 913 — and I wanted it to be completely free. So I built it myself. 913KC Garden is the site I spent years wishing existed.

A Note on the Native Plants Section

You'll notice this site includes a dedicated Native Plants guide and an Indigenous Peoples section honoring those who cultivated this land long before any of us arrived. That's there in homage — a cousin of mine carries Arapaho heritage, and learning what they shared about indigenous relationships with this land gave me a much deeper respect for what grows here naturally and why. Understanding the plants that thrived in this ecosystem for centuries makes you a better gardener. I wanted that history represented.

A Note on Accuracy

All frost dates and planting windows are based on NOAA historical climate data for the Kansas City metro area. Foraging and medicinal use information is for educational purposes only — always verify with a licensed expert before consuming wild plants. If you spot an error or have better local data, please reach out — I'd genuinely rather have it right than be right.