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K & K Gardens is one of our Fountains of Support. K & K Gardens offers a large assortment of perennials, annuals, water plants, workshops, gardening accessories and even bus tours.
I asked Keith and Kelli Kovarik to give our members some background information. Their website has information about them and their business but a written article helps introduce them to all of us. My thanks to Keith for sharing.
My wife and I moved to our present location in 1995 as we had recently gotten married and needed a place to reside. We had never planned to remain in the small town of Hawkeye and had hoped to move to a larger city. That hasn't happened, even though we still discuss it. After we look at our gardens those thoughts suddenly diminish.
We started "playing around" with our landscape in 1996. We had an extensive vegetable garden including strawberries, raspberries, grapes and blackberries before venturing into the wide world of perennials.
As we both grew up on farms we enjoyed getting our hands dirty and continued to experiment with perennials and annuals. As our interest grew, we started growing more perennials and heirloom vegetables from seed than we could handle; thus giving them away to our neighbors (which was virtually everyone in this small town). It was our neighbor then and still now that suggested we sell our plants as they were in demand in the area.
We decided we would start a small hobby business, but were open for a few weeks in May the first two years. This gave us a chance to learn more about gardening and give us more hands on experience. Within the next few years, I decided to take the Master Gardener's course, joined and attend several garden/pond organizations and took every workshop/conference related to gardening available in the tri-state area. Also during these two years we cultivated almost every inch of our 3/4-acre property. We started by landscaping around our house and gradually moved towards the backyard. Our landscape now includes thousands of perennials, a few ornamental trees/shrubs, two ponds, a perga-zebo, a pergola/patio, a very unique cedar fence and other cozy sitting areas.
Although we don't like to think of K & K Gardens as a business, it truly has become one. Open M - F 4:30 PM to 8:00 and all day Saturday/Sunday (as we both work fulltime jobs) it has kept us on our toes. Since 1998 our business has changed extensively. From a few dozen plants our first year to over 10,000 plants last year we thoroughly enjoy sharing our gardens and experience with everyone!
I hope this helps. We have lots of pictures on the web if you are interested.
Sincerely, Keith Kovarik