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Understory Garden

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United States
Leander, TX
Understory Garden

We are a backyard microfarm using sustainable practices to provide a unique variety of garden goods.

06/09/2025

Tomato time! On multiple levels actually. If you’re in Central Texas and doing a fall tomato crop from seed it’s time to get planting. We have some beauties coming in from the garden. All of these fresh seeds are available in our shop, along with lots more of our favorites! Mention this post and I’ll include a freebie in your order ❤️

Link to our seed store
understorygarden.etsy.com

05/31/2025

Loving all the garden goodness right now! The rain and cooler temperatures have been a blessing. The garlic harvest was phenomenal this year, we’re swimming in beans, and we are in heaven with all the fun varieties of tomatoes!

Food forest update: it’s thriving! We are so excited for all the fruit trees and vines taking off! There’s figs, mulberries, elderberries, blackberries, pomegranate, and lots of peaches! The food forest is actually only about 10 months old so it’s still filling in. We can’t wait to see how it will be a year or two from now!

Can you believe the forest used to be a food desert of Bermuda grass? Now it’s an area working hard, full of purpose supporting both humans and pollinators. We’re using tons of native plants as companions with the food crops.

05/05/2025

Homegrown blackberries coming in heavy now! We’ve also been foraging wild dewberries. They’re only in season for a short window every year so if you haven’t visited your local berry picking patch time is ticking.

04/04/2025

We’ve had so many of our friends and customers reach out to see if we have plants available. Unfortunately we haven’t been able to offer any this year due to completely maxing out our grow room and greenhouse for our backyard garden and community garden.

But we did just start all these babies with the intent of having a little plant sale in a few weeks! We know the heat is right around the corner, so we kept that in mind with choosing these varieties.

Be on the lookout for:
Golden Jenny Melon
Crane Melon
Eden Gem / Rocky Ford Melon
Sakata’s Sweet Melon
Kajari Melon
Korean Chamoe Melon
Molokhia Egyptian Spinach
Rodale Red Amaranth
Lagos Spinach Celosia
Thai Red Roselle Hibiscus
Papalo
Red Epazote

03/20/2025

All of these crafted gourd cuties have been a year in the making! Last spring we planted several varieties of hardshelled gourd seeds. We harvested the gourds, cured them over winter, and now they’re ready to work with! I have a long list of things I want to make with these. So far I’ve made a lamp, some bowls, and a birdhouse.
This year we’re going to see what happens if we use them as a companion plant with pumpkins. We only plant moschata species pumpkins due to the extreme squash vine borer pressure here, but sometimes the bugs will still take the plants out. The borers don’t seem to touch the gourd plants, they’re actually in a different genus than pumpkins. They leaves have a faint odor that we have a theory may help deter pests.
If you’re looking for a useful vining layer in your garden that the bugs and heat won’t bother give lagenaria gourds a shot!

03/06/2025

Our funky custom greenhouse is rocking! It’s helped us so much this year! We just made it through a few days of 50 mph wind gusts. We’re still getting some cold nights too, which peppers and tomatoes really don’t like. Thank goodness we have a sheltered place so we don’t have to plant all of our babies out before it’s the right time. While these plants are hardening off in the new greenhouse we’ve been able to keep our seed room cranking out more plants than ever before!

We made the greenhouse with pvc and free plastic sheets from a local grocery store. We used a heat gun on the bends, metal clips to attach the plastic, and some cheap Harbor Freight clamps to rest the “door” pipe bar on. There’s some clearance incandescent Christmas lights inside keeping things about 20 degrees warmer than our cool nights.

Once the cold has passed we’ll replace the plastic with mesh and used it as screened protection for bug prone plants. Aesthetically we know it’s not perfect but it’s budget friendly and highly functional!

02/17/2025

We just hit 200 orders in our Etsy store! We have been kept busy with the seed orders and we are loving every minute of it. Thank you for anyone that has ordered from us!

Meanwhile, all the good things that come with the season are also happening. Big harvests of leafy greens and root veg, planning the spring garden, and tending tons of plants!

Something new we’re experimenting with is propagating figs. We started 19 varieties of these tiny sticks around Christmas, and most have rooted! We have two big tubs full of them. The figs, along with 40 types of peppers and 32 types of tomatoes, are pushing our grow room to its limits. It’s a joyous time of year for us ❤️

01/16/2025

Exciting announcement: we’ve started selling our seeds on Etsy! We have received so much kind feedback on our seeds over the years from our awesome customers. We only save seeds from our favorite, most productive plants, all collected from our own garden. We’ve been having so much fun sending out little happiness deliveries far and wide! For orders with multiple items we’ve been including a surprise gift as well 🙂

Check us out!
https://www.etsy.com/shop/UnderstoryGarden

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Leander, TX

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