Our Garden
Pflugerville, Texas • Spring & Fall 2026 • A first-time food garden

Updates, Verifications & Instructions

Straight answers to the questions that came up while we were planting — what soil goes where, how much acidifier, the blackberry varieties, the nasturtium swap, and the sunflowers. Each answer is checked against university and cooperative-extension sources, with step-by-step where it helps. Current as of May 24, 2026.

📣 What changed since the original plan

🪴 Does the soil mix change from plant to plant?

Short answer: yes — three different mixes

We're growing in three kinds of container this year — the raised bed (the "box"), fabric grow bags, and now the sunflower frame — and the soil isn't the same in each. Here's the recipe for every one.

The box (raised bed)

The raised bed is filled with a blend of Landscapers Pride potting soil and composted cattle manure — roughly two parts soil to one part compost (the ratio Sam worked out). The University of Maryland Extension backs this kind of 1:2 compost-to-soil ratio for raised beds. The basil and parsley are already in it, and the marigolds go straight into the same mix — no change needed.

The pepper's 10-gallon bag — same as the box

The jumbo jalapeño gets the exact same compost-amended mix as the box. Peppers like a near-neutral soil (about pH 6.0–7.5), which that blend already provides. Do not add acidifier to the pepper bag.

The blackberry 25-gallon bags — different: acidified

Blackberries prefer a slightly acidic soil (around pH 5.5–6.5), lower than the box mix. So the blackberry bags get their own recipe:

  1. Fill the bag mostly with potting mix.
  2. Keep compost light — no more than about a fifth of the mix — or skip it and feed with Berry-Tone later. (Composted manure is near-neutral and works against the acidity you're trying to create.)
  3. Mix in the Espoma Soil Acidifier — see the next section for exactly how much.
  4. Plant one blackberry per bag — don't crowd two into one.

🧪 The soil acidifier — which one, and how much?

Espoma Organic Soil Acidifier — for the blackberries only

The product Sam picked up is exactly right: Espoma Organic Soil Acidifier is elemental sulfur plus gypsum, it's listed for organic gardening, and the bag itself notes it's safer than aluminum sulfate. It's the blackberries' job — not the pepper, not the box.

How much per 25-gallon bag:

  1. Use the bag's "Potted Plants" rate: 1 tablespoon for every 4 inches of pot diameter.
  2. Measure across the top of your 25-gallon grow bag — it's roughly 21–23 inches across.
  3. Divide that by 4. That comes out to about 5–6 tablespoons per bag.
  4. Mix it evenly through the whole bag of soil before planting — worked all the way through, not just sprinkled on top.

Two things worth knowing: sulfur works slowly — it nudges the pH down over a few weeks as the plant settles in, so there's no rush, and the label notes it won't burn the roots. And blackberries aren't as acid-hungry as blueberries, so one gentle dose now is plenty — you can re-check with a $10 pH kit in 6–8 weeks and add more only if it's still high.

🌻 What soil do the sunflowers need?

The easy one — sunflowers are tough

Good news on Sam's new frame: sunflowers are the least fussy plant in the garden. University extension sources describe them growing in "virtually any soil." The one thing they genuinely need is drainage — soil that isn't constantly soggy. They are not acid-lovers, and they don't need a premium mix the way the blackberries do.

For the new sunflower bed:

  1. Loosen the native soil inside the frame — turn it over or work it with a hand cultivator so it isn't compacted.
  2. Mix in a few inches of compost or composted manure. Sunflowers — especially the big branching and giant types — are fairly heavy feeders, so organic matter plus a slow-release fertilizer keeps them strong.
  3. No acidifier and no special potting mix needed — near-neutral soil (about pH 6.0–7.5) is fine.
  4. Full sun — the spot needs at least 6 hours of direct sun a day. The garage-side location works.

Two extras for the big varieties: space giant or mammoth sunflowers about 2 feet apart, and be ready to stake them — tall sunflowers get top-heavy and catch the wind. And remember the sunflowers' real job is as a trap crop: they earn their keep by being scouted for leaf-footed bugs, so having the bed a short walk from the tomato box — not right beside it — is exactly right.

🍃 What can replace the nasturtium?

Give it time — then sweet alyssum

The nasturtium seed has been slow to come up. First: that's normal — nasturtium can take a couple of weeks to sprout, so give it until about day 14 before deciding it failed.

If you'd like a backup, the best stand-in is sweet alyssum. It's a low, carpeting plant — much like nasturtium's spot at the edge of the bed — and the University of Illinois Extension notes it draws in hoverflies and ladybugs, beneficial insects whose appetite for aphids makes alyssum a genuinely good border plant for aphid control. Dog-safe — confirmed non-toxic to dogs by the ASPCA, so it's fine with Lulee.

Calendula (pot marigold) is another Dog-safe option if you'd like a second flower — just note the dog-safe one is Calendula, a different plant from the French marigolds already in the bed. And if the nasturtium does come up after all, there's no harm in keeping all of them.

🫐 The three blackberry varieties — what we found

Two researched, one honest unknown

We ended up with four blackberry plants across three varieties. Here's what the research turned up — including one honest finding.

The detail that matters for care: Ouachita and Big Daddy fruit on second-year wood; Prime-Ark Freedom can fruit on first-year wood. That changes how each is pruned. The full per-variety care and pruning is on the Plant Guide, and the week-by-week timing is on the Care Calendar.

✅ How we checked this

Every answer on this page is grounded in university and cooperative-extension sources — advice that has been trialed and reviewed, not just posted online. The blackberry and pruning guidance comes from Texas A&M AgriLife, the University of Maryland Extension, LSU AgCenter, and Ohio State University. The companion-plant and dog-safety answers come from the University of Illinois Extension and the ASPCA. The sunflower guidance comes from the extension services of Texas A&M, Minnesota, Georgia, Clemson, West Virginia, Missouri, and Illinois. The soil-acidifier amounts come from the product's own label.

☀️ Beating the heat — our shade-cloth plan

Added May 24 — the Pflugerville sun is already brutal

Summer came on fast this year, so we're getting shade up over the garden right away. Here's the plan: how much shade, what to buy, how to build it, and where everything goes.

How much shade — 40%, and no more

More shade is not better. University extension research is unanimous: tomatoes and peppers want a 30–40% shade cloth — enough to cut the heat and prevent sunscald, while still letting through plenty of light to set fruit. A five-year University of Maryland Extension study found a 30% cloth meaningfully increases marketable tomatoes and peppers; UC Extension puts it plainly — 40% density, and "any higher than that is not necessary." Heavier shade (50–70%) is only for very heat-sensitive crops like lettuce.

So: 40% black shade cloth. Black is fine and usually cheapest — colored cloth offers no real advantage.

🌅 About Sam's shade sail

Sam found a lovely beige triangular sun-shade sail online — a genuinely nice product. But it's built to shade a patio, and it blocks far more light than the 40% our tomatoes and peppers want. Over the vegetables, that much shade would work against us: leggy plants and poor fruit set.

The good news — it's perfect for the future pergola and seating area, where deep, pretty shade for people is exactly the point. So we're keeping the sail for that, and using 40% garden shade cloth over the vegetables now.

The structure — a lean-to off the house

The bedroom wall sits on the shady (north-northwest) side of the box — the side the harsh afternoon sun never comes from. That makes the wall a perfect anchor: we can build a lean-to instead of a full freestanding frame, which saves half the posts and concrete.

Attaching to the house — do it right: drive the anchor into solid wood (the fascia board or wall studs — not bare siding), pre-drill, and caulk every hole. It's the bedroom wall, so keep water out. You're only into exterior trim; removing it later leaves a few small, sealed holes.

📐 What it'll look like — sketches of the build

Two ways to picture it. First, from the side — the garden seen end-on, with the house on the left and the harsh afternoon sun on the right:

Side view of the wall-attached lean-to shade structure A cross-section sketch. On the left, the house bedroom wall with its eave about 110 inches up. A 40 percent black shade cloth attaches to the house about 9 feet up and slopes gently down across a roughly 12-foot span to two 8-foot posts standing in concrete-filled buckets on the sunny side. Below the cloth, blackberry grow bags sit shaded in the roughly 90-inch gap, the raised bed of tomatoes sits in the middle, and the pepper sits past the posts in full sun. The afternoon sun is on the right. Side view of the lean-to shade structure The house on the left, the harsh afternoon sun on the right Afternoon sun Bedroom wall Eave ≈ 110″ RAISED BED Tomatoes Blackberry grow bags tucked into the shade Pepper · full sun 40% black shade cloth ≈ 12 ft span, stretched taut Top edge bolts to the house · about 9 ft up Two 8-ft posts one behind the other Concrete-filled 5-gal bucket sturdy — nothing dug in Air gap cloth never touches the leaves ≈ 90″ gap blackberry bags go here NNW — house & shade SSE — afternoon sun
A side-elevation sketch — a diagram, not to exact scale. It shows how the pieces fit together: the cloth fixed high on the house, sloping gently down to the two posts, with the blackberry bags shaded underneath in the gap and the heat-loving pepper left out at the sunny edge.

And second, from above — looking straight down on the yard, which makes the spacing clear and shows where everything sits:

Bird's-eye plan view of the lean-to shade structure A top-down plan of the garden. The house bedroom wall runs along the top. A 40 percent shade cloth covers a rectangular zone reaching from the house out to two posts. Inside the shaded zone, three blackberry grow bags sit in the roughly 90-inch gap near the house, and the raised bed of tomatoes sits beyond them. The two posts stand in concrete buckets at the far edge. The pepper sits outside the shaded zone in full sun. A compass shows north, and the afternoon sun comes from the south-southeast. Bird's-eye view — the garden from above Looking straight down: the house at the top, the afternoon sun at the bottom HOUSE  ·  bedroom wall — runs ≈ 177″, faces NNW Afternoon sun — from the SSE N S ≈ 90″ gap 28″ ≈ 12 ft span (house → posts) ▲ the cloth's top edge bolts to the house, under the eave Blackberry grow bags — shaded 40% shade cloth — the whole dashed zone is shaded Raised bed — tomatoes & companions Two posts — each set in a concrete-filled bucket Pepper — full sun, no shade
A top-down plan — a diagram, not to exact scale. The dashed line is the edge of the 40% shade cloth: everything inside it is shaded. The blackberry bags sit in the gap near the house, the raised bed beyond them, and the pepper stays out in the sun past the posts. The compass and the sun show how the yard is oriented.
🛒 Shopping list — about $95–135, all same-day at Home Depot
Getting it right
🪴 Where the grow bags go

Tuck the blackberry grow bags into the gap between the box and the house — that's the cooler side, and it sits under the lean-to, so the blackberries get the afternoon shade they like. Space the 25-gallon bags about 2–3 ft apart for airflow. The pepper is heat-tolerant — it's happy at the sunny edge and doesn't need the shade.

Looking ahead: the two far posts sit right where the future pergola's posts will go, and the pergola can attach to the house along this same line — so this lean-to is a full-scale dry run of the pergola. Nothing we build today gets torn out.

Sources: Texas A&M AgriLife, University of Maryland Extension, University of California (UC ANR), and University of Delaware Cooperative Extension — shade-cloth guidance for hot-climate vegetable gardens.