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Danduland A Salina gardener demonstrates the rich, tasteful possibilities found in a simple backyard garden of an ordinary Kansas neighborhood Story by Meta Newell West Photography by Karen Bonar
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n the back yard of a residential neighborhood of Salina, Kamila Dandu’s garden features plants and vegetables from around the world: pencil-thin Thai long beans; spiky lime-green Asian gourds; purple, lavender and white eggplants from various countries; waxy sweet peppers from Hungary; and Italian ribbed red tomatoes mixed with an array of colorful flowers and lush green plants. Pots and plots of fragrant herbs join the mix to create a polyculture, a diversified agricultural system. Dandu believes that with the right care and attention, the Kansas soil of her garden—which her husband has named “Danduland” as an homage to her ability to turn the lawn into an agricultural oasis—can support all sorts of plant varieties and cultures. She transplanted some moringa oleifera (a long, slender plant often called the “drumstick tree”) from seeds mailed to her from a fellow gardener in Arizona. One winter, she threw Spanish peanuts into a container, then harvested and roasted the peanuts the next summer. She says even tropical and subtropical plants can be grown in Kansas if given plenty of water, brought inside during the winter or grown as an annual.
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KANSAS! MAGAZINE | 2022 ISSUE 3
Left These Asian gourds have adapted well to central-Kansas. Opposite Kamila Dandu grows flowers and vegetables from her backyard in Salina.
