How Does Your Garden Grow | Franklin, Webster Groves

Tell us about your garden!

I just moved here from Los Angeles. With the help of my chicken flock and their compost-making, I began growing microgreens late last year. Sunflower, Broccoli, Kale, Arugula, Cabbage, Kohlrabi. I love growing my micro greens. For spring and summer, I have close to 70 different vegetables just waiting to hit the garden.

We'd love to know more about your garden. How much space do you have? What are some of the challenges you've faced?

I have .10 acre in my back yard. Winter of 2020 was my chickens first winter, but they crushed it. But keeping compost heated through those few weeks in February were tricky. They eat only soaked whole grain and food waste, so keeping that thawed was a bit frustrating. I also have a resident owl and hawk that I like to have strict conversations with. Haha.

Share your knowledge! Do you have any tips and tricks? What are the benefits of gardening for you?

As a compost & chicken farmer, my focus is always on soil health. And the most efficient way to maintain the optimal soil health is to keep it in the traditional farming realm. No sprays, no amendments, no pelletized food, heavy bio-diversity, heavy density; creating an environment that resembles our world before shopping malls and commercial mono-crop farming.

Most importantly, why do YOU garden?

Sustainability is key. Having pure autonomy about what goes our bodies is the only way to go. Once you realize how easy it is to grow your own food and/or watch others discover it, it's whole new level. Like magically traveling to another time in history and watching that first, discarded wheat seed grow into grass, then transform into bread. A forgotten herb that heals wounds. The buried, rotten corn ear that produces food in the hot summer months.

How does YOUR garden grow? Share your photos with us HERE!