A Kansas gardener is suing for the right to sell honey and fruit from her Ottawa yard

Ellen Finnerty dreams of beekeeping and of supplementing the income from her warehouse job by selling products from her garden.
OTTAWA, Kansas — Ellen Finnerty revels in working her backyard garden as much to learn the science as to harvest a juicy watermelon.

She researches compost techniques, knows the insects that visit her wild bergamot and is trying to dwarf several apple trees.

“Sometimes I’m even giddy about failures,” she said. “Like, ‘Oh, no! It failed! But why?’ And so it’s a big puzzle and my brain really loves that.”

Now the Ottawa resident wants to keep bees, too, and ultimately sell her honey, fruits and vegetables at a local farmer’s market.

But the city of Ottawa halted her aspirations last year, citing city code.