Tell us about your gardening experience!

I began my journey into gardening about 10 years ago. It all began when I became a first-time homeowner. I was so excited to add my own personal touches to the yard. I knew that I wanted to plant hydrangeas, but didn't know a thing about gardening. Once I get started with planting my front yard, I absolutely got the "garden bug" and haven't stopped since. Gardening has become my biggest passion, and the absolute best thing that I have done for myself. It helps to support my mental and physical health, relieves stress, keeps me grounded, and gives me something to look forward to during the hard winter months.

My absolute favorite things to grow are tomatoes! There are endless varieties to choose from, they are extremely prolific and delicious, and the plants smell amazing. I love going down a row of tomatoes, pruning them, being in the moment, and enjoying their abundance. I also love throwing the ones that get nibbled on, split, or messed up in some way to my chickens. They LOVE fresh tomatoes!

My garden plans for 2021 are to really maximize the amount of produce we are able to grow and donate. I have removed some of the plants that take up a lot of space and a long time to produce, such as broccoli, and plan to take full advantage of all 3 seasons. I am trying a few new items to feed our soil life and add nutrients, such as alfalfa pellets, and will be adding a lot more beneficial herbs and flowers.

Share a little more about your garden itself.

Feed the People Garden Project has 33 raised beds. Some are made from cedar pickets, some from cinder blocks (my favorite), some have log borders and were created using the lasagna layering method, and some are made from untreated 2 x 12 boards. We have tons of cattle panel trellises to support tomatoes, cucumbers, beans, and other vining crops. We also have a food forest, where the chickens spend their daytime hours scratching, fertilizing, and doing insect management. We also have a small 6ft x 8ft greenhouse that has really increased our capacity to start plants from seed.

Our biggest challenge has definitely been squash bugs. We will not be growing squash for the next 3 years in order to try to remove the issue. Other challenges include our *super helpful* garden pups that like to go through and undo much of the work that gets done, keeping up with a garden of this size that is run entirely by volunteers, and mosquitoes during the hotter months.

Do you have any gardening tips and tricks?

Plan ahead! Use the winter months to learn as much as you can and really think through what your are planting, what materials you still need, and how you what you want your season to look like. Focus on your soil prep and putting up any trellises and such before the growing season kicks off, so that when it is time to plant you can focus on that. I try to always make my soil my top priority, because having good soil is critical to having good crops. Compost is your best friend! Don't skip it! Try to source used materials or tools. Many people have sheds and basements full of goodies that they aren't using. Often, you can get much of what you need for free or low cost, rather than purchasing new.

Why do you garden?

Gardening brings me to life! It is incredibly centering, healing, and motivating. It provides endless opportunities to continue learning, try new methods, fail and try again. For me, it is also a way to build community and to give back to community. I love being able to bring folks together (during non-covid times) for big gardening days and seed swaps! We have many folks in our community that are food insecure, and being able to grow and donate fresh healthy produce is a way to help support that need.

Follow along with Ro’s gardening adventures at the Feed the People Facebook page! Ro is also a staff member at Urban Harvest STL and manages our farm at Rung for Women.

How does YOUR garden grow? Submit your photos and tell us more at urbanharveststl.org/share-your-garden