Learn by growing.
Gardening has a remarkable way of answering one question by giving you six new ones.
This is where we keep what we’re learning – practical growing guides, soil recipes, bug identification, Central Texas survival strategies, and the resources we reach for when we don’t know the answer.
You don’t have to know everything to grow something.
We certainly didn’t.
Cattywampus started with questions, experiments, mistakes, a lot of Googling, and the occasional plant that died before anyone could figure out what the hell it wanted.
These guides collect what we’ve learned along the way, alongside reliable outside resources from people who know considerably more than we do.
Central Texas Gardening
Heat. Drought. Surprise freezes. Humidity. Weather that appears to hold personal grudges.
Practical guidance for growing food in Central Texas – including seasonal planting, watering, shade, containers and keeping plants alive when summer tries to murder everything.
Plant Care Guides
What does it want? Why is it yellow? How much water is too much water? Why was it perfectly happy yesterday?
Find growing information for vegetables, herbs, flowers and the other things we’ve attempted to keep alive.
Soil & Growing Mixes
The interesting part of a garden doesn’t stop at the soil line.
Learn about growing media, drainage, amendments, soil life and the mixes we’re using and testing in our own containers.
Bugs, Pollinators & Ecosystems
Some bugs eat your plants. Some bugs eat the bugs eating your plants. Some are just trying to get laid on your squash flowers.
Learn who’s who, how to support pollinators and beneficial insects, and how to build a garden that functions more like an ecosystem than a battlefield.
Don’t just take our word for it.
We’re growers and learners, not the final authority on horticulture.
When we need research, identification help or information beyond our experience, we go looking for people whose job it is to know this stuff.