About

Who we are

We are Zakaria and Salma — partners in life and co-growers on a 0.2-acre urban lot in Austin, Texas (USDA zone 8b). The garden is a genuine split-labour effort: Zakaria designs the infrastructure, runs the irrigation and manages the flock, while Salma plans the crop successions, looks after the soil biology and fills the harvest baskets.

That division is how bylines work here too. Zakaria writes the beds, soil, watering and poultry guides; Salma writes the planting, harvesting and pest guides. Anything outside what either of us does personally is published under the house byline and researched rather than lived.

Why this site exists

Most gardening advice online is either too vague to act on or written by someone who has never put a spade in the ground. We started Grow In Backyard in 2026 to publish the opposite: specific, seasonal instructions that tell you what to do this weekend and what to expect when you do it.

One caveat worth stating up front: we garden in zone 8b, where summers are long and punishing and winters are mild and erratic. Where timing depends on climate we give the zone, because "plant in March" is useless and occasionally wrong advice for someone in Minnesota.

How we work

Every guide comes from one of two places: something we have grown, built or kept ourselves, or established horticultural guidance that we check against a primary source before repeating it. When we have not done a thing personally, we say so rather than implying otherwise.

We do not run hands-on product tests. Our gear articles are buying criteria — what matters in a tool, which specifications predict whether it lasts, and which situation calls for which option — assembled from manufacturer specifications, owner reports and our own experience of the jobs the tools do. Plenty of sites photograph a product on a bench and call that a test. We would rather tell you what to look for and let you judge.

We update guides as we learn more. The date at the top of every article is the last time it was reviewed, not the day it was first published — so you can tell at a glance whether the advice is current. Our full standards are in the editorial policy.

Start here

The planting calendar is the most useful page we have: sowing, planting and harvest timing for 21 crops, counted from your own frost dates rather than ours, and built to print.

How we make money

Grow In Backyard is free to read and funded by affiliate commissions, display advertising, and products we sell directly. None of that changes what we recommend: we do not accept payment for a placement or a positive review, and we recommend the cheap option when the cheap option is right. The details are in our affiliate disclosure.

Get in touch

Corrections, questions, and "this did not work for me" emails are all welcome — the last kind especially, because it is how guides get better. Reach us at [email protected].