Similar to you, I started my gardening adventure in my Austin backyard two years ago. As a matter of fact, my backyard is very similar to your backyard of your first home. I was so excited to discover your channel. It definitely helps a lot to see videos of a local gardener located in the same city! Looking forward to your next video!
Very helpful video! I love how much you’ve learned about gardening in the past couple years and that you’re able to share that with other beginners so they don’t make all the same mistakes.
Great Video Matthew! Do you use any worm castings? Worms create the best fertilizer on the planet! I raise millions of worms for fertilizer for my garden, and to teach others how to care for them :)
*You are a great guy my friend MATTHEW WOTTRICH, but more importantly a good teacher. You also came across as very genuine and willing to share all that you know. May you grow in wisdom, I wish you abundant crops, happy gardeniiiiiiiiiing!!!*
very helpful! i'm in San Antonio and decided that one of my new years resolutions is to begin gardening in my backyard and hopefully growing some herbs and veggies. definitely going to be tuning into your channel :)
Love that you are showing people how to do it in their backyard! Not everyone has a large homestead. I also love that you have people on here commenting that are actually from Austin. I am NC but I think it's fun that you have some locals following!
Thank you, this helped a lot even though I am a seasoned gardener. I always grew plants in pots not raised beds. This video is very well thought and made well.
Hello. I'm about an hour north of Austin. Considering the Texan summer, situating garden beds in an area that gets partial shade is a good idea. My back yard has a very large tree. However, the backyard gets 6/7 hours of strong sunlight and then mostly shade. I have to shade 3 of my beds from about 830am to about 4 pm, so plants aren't so stressed. One accidental discovery was the aid of sunflowers to shade beds from the eastern sun. I'll be purposefully planting more sunflowers in the spring.
Thank you for sharing such detailed information, even the bad (insects/fungus) that can happen when gardening. I live in the same zone as you, so this helps.
First time viewer here. Great job, garden looks beautiful and you are correct....while learning you will kill a lot of plants. For your peaches....check out Kaolin clay to protect from those pesky borers.
Yes, I've told my friends that my garden only looks so good because its the 30% that didnt die, and ill definitely look into Kaolin clay, thanks Terry!
I think you may have moths in your peaches. If you plant strawberries by your peach trees the moths will choose the strawberries over the peaches. Crazy that an elevated bed runs $1000. I’m really interested in companion gardening. My parents had a huge bountiful garden every year. Never paid attention🥴 Nice vid! Thanks!
After all of the horror stories I've heard about store bought produce recently, I'm thinking about getting into backyard gardening for the sake of better health in the long run. Nice, informative video.
Happy to help! One of the things I’ve discovered from hobby gardening is an appreciation for store-bought produce. I’ve harvested well over 50 pounds of peaches, carrots, radish, cabbage, tomatoes, and cucumbers this year, but at least half of them died on the vine/tree from fungus, or were attacked by pests like wasps and sparrows. Yes, food at the store is covered in poison, but strangely that’s better than no food at all. If I could only eat what I grew, I’d become a carnivore nine months out of the year or starve to death.
@AustinTexasGardening // Thanks for letting me know. This last summer was torture to my plants. Meaning...lots of $$$$ down the drain, and I tried to fight with them hard. I'll have to start over.
The way you were just watering all the leaves?? DO NOT OVERHEAD WATER unless it’s very early in the morning or late afternoon so your plants don’t get soil borne diseases! Always try to water at soil level, especially in Texas!!
Great feedback, I agree, watering your leaves is a great way to get fungal infection. I’ve learned a lot about gardening since I started making these videos back in the day
7:20 yeah buddy as soon as I saw all that beautiful wood you bought during the COVID price hike I knew that that would be a pricey build. Sucks that HOA fears kept you from buying soil bulk/having it delivered :(
Ha yep, the wood isnt even what killed me, it was the granite and soil. In the future ill definitely do steel raised beds and get a few cu.yds from a soil yard
Kelloggs is like 3/10, id recommend supporting a local nursery or soil yard and buying compost and/or black loamy soil, but as long as you’re not going for the cheap $2 soil bags your garden project will probably do okay
It is different! Recently we were recategorized from zone 8b to 9a, but I haven’t noticed much difference. We still got a hard freeze down to the low teens this winter.
I started inside in January, but planted seeds outside in late feb and early march, dealing with the late cold snaps is easier than the early drought and heat
In the suburbs, they bring in yellow clay for landscaping, which is totally nutrient void. In my yard, I’ve got 1.5” of turf before the clay, so tomatoes, strawberries, cucumbers etc won’t grow there. I’ve brought in bagged dirt from Home Depot to fill this garden bed. In the future, I may bring in soil from my relatives land. The biggest reason for raised beds is this: in the suburbs, all the round up, weed seed, and dog poo washes through your yard when it rains heavily. With a raised bed, you avoid this fallout. The con is, the heat and cold will be harder on your garden’s roots. If I was in the country with black soil, I’d till it and plant in ground, but because I’m in the suburbs with yellow clay, I do raised beds.
We have really dense clay soil in my suburb (lots of Austin suburbs are like this too), its easier to build and grow above ground than to deal with drainage issues in ground, because in order to improve drainage, the the amount of soil you need to amend is huge. Sometimes amending isnt even possible, in my circumstance, the neighbors yards drain through my lot, and then that drains to the street at a very slight gradient, so digging a drainage ditch wouldnt work and the clay is 10+ feet deep in most locations for sewage pipes I do plan on doing way more in ground stuff in the years to come if we ever move out to a more rural spot!
You can have a load of dirt, mulch or stones dropped in your driveway. Your homeowners association won’t do anything about that, unless they are blue state fascists.
