How Does Your Urban Garden Grow? Tips From St. Louis City Farmers

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You can cut your grocery bill by clipping coupons and comparing prices at different grocers, but one of the best ways to cut grocery costs is growing your own fruits, vegetables and herbs. For pennies on the dollar you can get a whole season's or even a year's worth of fresh ingredients daily from your own backyard. You don't have to be living on acres of land to grow one either.

More people are tending to urban gardens and raising food in containers and smaller plots of land to cut their grocery bills, turn up the flavor in their cooking and as a fun, outdoor hobby. Kelli Best-Oliver has been maintaining a garden of some type for the past three years at her South City home. She explained why she started growing her own food, "I started for environmental reasons... Once you realize how far your food travels, and how many fossil fuels they use, and how much better something tastes when you eat it the same day you pick it, there's really no reason not to." She added. "I think it's quite amazing that I can make my own food with only seeds, dirt, and my own effort. It's incredibly satisfying. "

Urban farming presents a different set of challenges than those seen in the countryside, but if you plan for space and sunlight you can harvest many of the same foods that come from those tractor tended patches. Mindy Tobias is another South City, urban farmer who is going on her fourth year of raising her own veggies. Mindy says she typically grows green beans and cucumbers. Last year she added tomatoes, snap peas, lettuce, squash and collard greens, and this year she is trying out strawberries, potatoes and a few Asian veggies. Kelli has been growing tomatoes for pastas and salsa, peppers, broccoli, melons, as well as a variety of berries and greens. No matter where you are growing your plot, your personal produce section is only limited by your imagination and the amount of time you have.

Kelli and Mindi both have experience with both plot and container gardens, and both lady farmers say drainage is important. Mindi's said, "Be sure to have good drainage. I use lots of small rocks that the previous owner of my home had. I had success growing peppers, especially jalapeños in containers as well as spices." Gardening in a container doesn't limit you to certain types of producer though, Kelli explained, "Herbs are good for containers, but if you are looking to grow produce, look for compact varieties that will do well in smaller spaces."

This isn't a science experiment, its Mindi's urban farm in the making.
(Photo courtesy Mindi Tobias)

Planting season is only a few weeks away, and both Mindi and Kelli are getting ready for a summer of fresh foods now by starting to grow seedlings. Kelli had a few pieces of advice for first time urban farmers, "I think a good thing to start with is herbs. First of all, you can grow them inside or in containers, so space isn't an issue. You also get a lot for your money... I'd then move to containers."

She added, "Secondly, growing from seed may not be for everyone. Start out by buying plants from local farmers. When the farmers markets start up in the next few months, plants are one of the few things they'll have. Plus, you know if they are grown locally that conditions are good here in Missouri for that type of plant. I like Biver Farms from Edwardsville. They're organic and always have top-notch produce at the markets."

Mindi advised that St. Louis gardeners watch out for rabbits, "I've been growing snap peas in containers to avoid the rabbits for the last two years." Kelli also recommends doing some research online before you start, "There' so much good information available online..." You can hunt through sites specific to container and urban gardening, and there are many sites that deal specifically with Index of Metro St. Louis gardening.

Now is the perfect time to start cutting back on your grocery bills, adding more healthy and tasty foods to your diet and soaking up all of that vitamin D from the sun. Burpee, a company that sells seeds for home gardening, discovered a 1 to 25 cost-savings ratio for home gardeners. In other words, if you invest $50 in seeds and fertilizer for your garden you will get from it about $1,250 worth of food, and that some serious grocery bill savings.