He was growing tomatoes, and potatoes are cheap, so that left corn on the cob as the missing part of the trio. My daughter had purchased a book on square foot gardening, which I borrowed and read.
I started with a 3 ft. x 8 ft bed next to the patio. Filled with non-soil based on Mel's mix instructions. Planted half of the raised bed with dwarf(sort of) corn, with 4 seeds per square foot. Interspersed beans and watermelon in the rest, and a little lettuce, carrots, and onions.
Hubby was totally skeptical of the whole thing: Soil mix will never work. Plants are too close together etc. etc. Corn did sooo well he decided he could plant some the next year.
He also converted his first garden patch into 3 x 30 ft. raised beds, with a little space to walk in between the beds. He doesn't use Mel's recipe though.LOL.
Weather in Missouri can be kinda problematic too. The new zone map has us in zone 6 now, where we used to be zone 5. Did your zone change too?
Good luck with your gardening efforts this year.
Our weather is very problematic and we can’t grow tomatoes here so we grow potato varieties that are not available in our markets but our big producers are various berries. Lady Bender picked 2 gallons of strawberries this afternoon and most of them will be served at Fellowship after Services tomorrow morning.