If you’re interested in gardening, food justice, composting or building community around any of that in St. Louis, you probably already know Ro Kicker. They’re the person behind garden consultation business Grow with Ro, and the friendly worm enthusiast of Ro’s Wigglers. They’re also behind Feed the People Garden Project and its offshoot, Queers in the Garden.
But Kicker didn’t grow up with a shovel in their hand. They’d never planted so much as a bean until buying their house in 2011, which came with an unusually large backyard. A friend suggested putting in raised garden beds.
Kicker introduces a young gardener to some new friends. Courtesy of Ro Kicker
Initially, “I knew nothing about gardening,” says Kicker, “but through that process I got hooked and then immediately became obsessed. And gardening became the absolute best thing I’ve ever done for myself. Not only did it feed our household, but it also drastically reduced my anxiety and depression, raised my energy levels and just really, really helped me in a lot of positive ways.”
Feeling thankful for their experience, Kicker wanted to share what they’d learned and how they’d changed their own life. They also noticed lots of appeals online, especially in queer and trans spaces, seeking mutual aid around food.
So in 2017 they decided to build a couple more garden beds with the intention of donating the produce to Metro Trans Umbrella Group, which had been doing a food pantry. They posted a note online looking for folks to donate materials or time to building those beds.
“Well, there was a lot of enthusiasm,” they say, “and I have the personality I have, so I just took it and ran with it, and started Feed the People Garden Project.”
Kicker’s idea caught fire within the community, and LGBTQIA folks who met at Saturday community garden volunteer hours started showing up together on Thursdays. “The following season I made it official,” they say. “Every Thursday we did Queers in the Garden, and it has taken off!”
The initial “couple extra beds” have continued to multiply, and the Feed the People Garden Project now boasts 33 raised vegetable-producing beds.
Now, “We have anywhere between 15 to 45 people back there,” says Kicker. “We’ve had some of the same consistent faces over those past three years, and every week or so we get new, fresh faces as well. A lot of people have told me it’s their third space. A lot of people have told me it’s the reason they’re still in St. Louis.”
It was hard at first to get people to take the produce. Kicker says that there’s stigma and shame associated with need and hunger. So, to get people to take the food, it’s just available to anyone in the community, no questions asked.
“When I started Feed the People, I was out in the garden more and more,” they say. “I was working inside at the time, I had a DEI job, but I was always just waiting to be outside, and we were producing all this food, and I kept thinking, ‘Man, what if I could do this full time?’”
This idea continued to grow, and they took steps to make it a reality. In 2020 they completed an apprenticeship at EarthDance Organic Farm School and made learning about gardening into a vocation. And before too long, they left the cubicle for good.
“I’m broken for life now,” Kicker jokes. “I can’t ever sit at a desk again!”
Grow With Ro is now their full-time gardening business, and Ro’s Wigglers is their wormy passion project — you’ve likely seen Ro and their worm herd at your neighborhood farmers’ market.
“I always tell people: You want to grow your soil before you grow your plants,” Kicker says. “The soil is everything. I know [for a lot of people] it’s the less exciting thing. Well, for me, it’s the most exciting thing. At this point, my friends have gotten tired of hearing about my worms.”
Ro’s Wigglers offers low-cost, ready-to-go worm bins. They’re preloaded with new friends and have the instructions printed right on the side. Kicker says that letting worms turn your trash into compost is the single most effective way to get your garden poppin’.
“I went to school for social work, and now I sell poop for a living,” Kicker says. “What do you do?”
Get Growing!
If you’ve never grown a single vegetable before, Ro’s got some recommendations for you for this summer.
Tomatoes are the most commonly grown city crop, and they thrive in our climate. Peppers can be very rewarding, and leafy greens are easy and productive — plus you can direct-sow them by just tossing the seeds into the dirt. Cucumbers take a little more work and require a trellis, but they also thrive in St. Louis’s swampy summers. Radishes are the fastest seed-to-plate option, and beans are pretty resistant to pests and diseases.
Seed St. Louis is a great resource for local gardeners, Kicker says. They update their planting calendar every year, so you’ll know what to plant when. You can download a PDF from their site or pick one up at one of their events.
Don’t worry much about crop rotation in your backyard bed. You’re not growing an industrial monoculture so even if all you focus on is tomatoes, year after year, the soil should stay productive. But if you want to make your soil rich and delectable, well, get some worm poop in there!
Check out knownandgrownstl.org and roswigglers.com for more info or to get involved.
