Hi from Metro STL, MO

[GApeachmama]

Hi All,

I’m stuck in the suburban St. Louis, Missouri area but it doesn’t bother me as much as it used to. I dove into the chicken world in May. I have 9 hens that my sweet dog is jealous of. I’m waiting for all 9 to lay. So why not dive even more into gardening now? I now have about 88 sq ft of raised beds. I have about 20 crops I’m planning to plant between today and this weekend. I obviously don’t know how to dip my toes in anything.

I’m not a complete novice gardener but I also used to just slap starters into the garden and let the Lord decide what happens. I’m trying to be more serious now. I purchased raised bed mix about 2 cu yards of it, conscripted my husband and 2 sons into moving it with me this past weekend. Now I sit here with I sore neck and back anxious about actually putting things in the ground because I don’t want to fail. Nonetheless I understand that he longer I wait the greater the chances of failure.

So that’s me. Excited, anxious, probably overcommitted based on the number of crops and currently sore, and an aggressive emoji user.

 

[flowerbug]

i hope it goes well, just remember it is easier to start smaller than larger and then see how it goes. after a few years all gardens seem to improve on weed control if you keep after them but it is always something that needs dealing with and with kids and animals involved it might be more than you really have time for. if you have deer, rabbits, etc around they all like to raid the gardens. i use fences, but you have dogs and perhaps they'll discourage the other critters enough.

 

[GApeachmama]

i hope it goes well, just remember it is easier to start smaller than larger and then see how it goes. after a few years all gardens seem to improve on weed control if you keep after them but it is always something that needs dealing with and with kids and animals involved it might be more than you really have time for. if you have deer, rabbits, etc around they all like to raid the gardens. i use fences, but you have dogs and perhaps they'll discourage the other critters enough.

My main opponent is my chickens. We put up a fence around the garden to help with deterring them. We’ll see how well it works when my plants are in. I’m also putting up hoops with cloth.

 

[digitS']

Welcome to The Easy Garden .

With 20 crops in 88 square feet ..? Are they all cold-hardy? The USDA hardiness zone for zip code 63103 is 7a with an "average coldest annual temperature of 0 to 5°F" . You are thinking about doing this is on the first full day of Autumn?

I used to limit my small laying hen flock (no rooster) to a couple of morning hours foraging, several times a week. It worked surprisingly well but wasn't 100%. The little backyard vegetable garden was out of sight from their coop and they didn't seem to want to be out there.

Steve