KC Farm School at Gibbs Road’s Native Garden
Kansas City, KS
Photos: Alicia Ellingsworth
Size: 50’x150’ plot and 20’x20’ raingarden
Year established: 2019
Year inducted: 2022
Category: Professionally managed with volunteer assistance
Entrance Fee: Free
Description: The KC Farm School native garden is built atop a berm and swale system to capture water and minimize erosion in an urban/peri-urban area. The garden is a mix of mostly forbs and grasses, with some shrubs, combined in an arrangement with a wild feel. The area is mostly sun with some partial shade and also includes a raingarden. Butterflies, bees and birds are daily visitors to the garden, and groundhogs, rabbits, and deer travel through as well. Botanical Belonging, Tonganoxie, KS, helped select natives for the Berms and Swales garden and David Dods designed and planted the raingarden.
The farm crew and apprentices perform quarterly maintenance of the gardens, supplemented by weekly maintenance by dedicated volunteers, including weed control and use of leaf mulch and wood chips on paths along with judicious use elsewhere.
What Makes this Garden Excellent: This native garden on the grounds of a working urban farm demonstrates native plants co-existing with agriculture. The farm draws visitors with an apprenticeship program, an onsite farm market, a farm camp for youth, and other activities, and educates them regarding the many benefits of native plants including for pollinators and stormwater control.
Ten Great Native Plants to See Here:
Carex grayi (Globe sedge)
Carex albicans (Oak sedge)
Eryngium yuccifolium (Rattlesnake master)
Fragaria virginiana (Wild strawberry)
Liatris aspera (Rough blazing star)
Juncus effusus (Soft rush)
Ratibida columnifera (Long-headed coneflower)
Rudbeckia missouriensis (Missouri coneflower)
Rudbeckia subtomentosa (Sweet coneflower)
Silphium terebinthinaceum (Prairie dock)
Signage: Signage identifies the site and recognizes funders, the Unified Government of Wyandotte County and Missouri Prairie Foundation.
Accessibility: The rain garden is located on the edge of a driveway/parking lot and the larger garden is approximately 175 feet from pavement, accessible by a wood chip path.
Location:
4223 Gibbs Rd, Kansas City, KS 66106
Coordinates:
39°3’30.3″N 94°40’40.8″W
39.05841, -94.67799
For More Information:
Contact person: Alicia Ellingsworth (alicia@kcfarmschool.org)