Agricrafty.com--Grow Stuff! Build Stuff! Learn Stuff!

ERay Gard, creator of Agricrafty

There’s great gardening going on in Austin, Texas. If you need to improve your gardening skill set, agricrafty.com is a valuable resource.

First created as a WordPress blog, developer ERay Gard is an expert in establishing permaculture gardens. 

ERay grew up on a New Mexico ranch and received his undergraduate degree in Agricultural Development from Texas A&M. He joined the Peace Corps and served in Ecuador where he trained community leaders and volunteers on the set-up and management of school gardens. 

After the Peace Corps, ERay volunteered with the Sustainable Food Center in Austin before earning his master’s degree in Sustainable International Development at Brandeis University’s Heller School in Boston. As part of his MA requirements he worked in several development and advisory positions in Damascus, Syria, and in Copan Ruinas, Honduras. 

ERay is back in Austin now where he has worked with Skillshare in the development of online gardening classes and has served as educator for Farmshare Austin where he taught their “Farmer Starter” program for beginning organic farmers. 

How to test your soil.

One topic of ERay’s scrutiny is the importance of soil. In central Texas we must deal with heavy clay, alkaline soil, and limestone. Agricrafty stresses the importance of good, fertile soil and offers a tutorial on how to test it. 

Sheet mulch tutorial

ERay follows his soil tutorial with helpful information about cultivation, soil preparation, and mulch. He recommends using sheet mulch, a combination of cardboard and hay. His primer includes photos which are a big help in understanding how to engineer the mulch. 

ERay has posted helpful You Tube videos on Hardening off and Transplanting Tips and Demo, What it means to "Water In" a plant or seeds, Tomato Seed Planting in Starter Tray, Hybrid v Heirloom Seeds, and several others.

In addition to the website and blog, you can find Agricrafty on Facebook and Instagram.