Hi Molly,

I also live in Austin area (Cedar Park) and grow antique roses. I've decided to grow some veggies this year, too.
After doing some research, decided the best plan for me would be to use raised garden beds since most of the yards here are on solid limestone rock. Raised beds allow one to control quality of the soil, eradicate weeds from the start, and have a neater, easier to maintain garden. You also eliminate all the digging and heavy work involved in garden prep. They are also great for smaller spaces as you can build them any size you like... to fit wherever you decide to place them. Check out the Square Foot Garden Forum (a Garden Web site) for some good ideas. You can also Google "raised garden beds" for directions to build all kinds of boxed-in gardens. According to a chart I have for Central Texas gardeners, it's a bit late to start vegetables; but you can still plant tomatoes (transplants), squash, eggplant (transplants), peppers (transplants) green beans, Swiss chard, cucumbers, cantalope, and watermelon. I think it's a good idea to start growing some of our own food instead of depending on the supermarket for everything we eat. I'm also experimenting with some small fruit trees(apricots and figs), strawberries, and grapes.
By the way...I no longer live in Zone 9.

Molly,
For a small area such as yours, Kayakita is absolutely right--raised beds are the way to go. I would suggest two beds with a pathway (mulched) between them. That way you can reach everything.
Your selection of vegetables sounds good--I have had good luck with Icheban eggplant, and with Tendercrop or Tendergreen green beans. With your limited space, I personally wouldn't put in space-eaters like squash and zucchini--fresh is easily purchased cheaply at a farmers' market, and you could do more interesting and harder-to-find vegetables. How about a nice bell pepper (Keystone or CalWonder), and another like a banana or Italian frying pepper? They cost an arm and a leg at the grocery, and are waxed!
There are two sites that may be of help. If you click the "forums" at the top of the page, then "garden" there is a list of forums, with a "vegetable" forum appearing near the bottom. It isn't specific to Texas, but there is a lot of knowledge there. Also, there is a list of "when to plant what" available from A&M. The site is http://aggiehorticulture.tamu.edu/plantanswers/earthkind/ekgarden14.html
Good luck with your garden (and try tomatoes again--total wipeout happens to all of us and gardening is all about hope)!

Its not too late to start okra and if you can find cherry tomato transplants that might be the way to go since they seem to set fruit better in high temps

9x9Â may be too small an area for wide spreading veggies but you could use a vertical trellis to grow pole beans, vine type cucumbers, squash and small fruited melons (use panty hose as slings to hold fruit) Â place trellis on the north side of your garden.

Another tip for small spaces is to use veggie varieties recommended for containers. Indeterminate cherry tomatoes will keep growing and producing when night temps have shut down pollination of large fruited varieties.

Just be sure to prepare the soil, use a quality gardening mix and mulch with weed free material to keep soils temps and moisture stable plus suppress weeds. Replenish with compost as needed during the growing season and plant a "green manure" winter cover crop to improve your garden plot.

Check out the gardening seminars and workshops available in Austin  check out the Travis County Master Gardener Association web site "tcmastergardener.org" and the Agri-Life Extension web site "aggie-horticulture.tamu.edu/travis"; or the main Aggie web site
"aggie-horticulture.tamu.edu" for advise. The oldest organic gardening club in the US is located in Austin  they meet at Zilker Botanical Garden the second Monday of the month at 7:30 PM. You have a wealth of information and local contacts that can help you get started!

Happy Gardening

TJ

Here's a list of what to plant in April. The link below is to the Travis County Agricultural Extension Service, where you will find a list for every month.

April

1-15
Lima Beans
Snap Beans
Beets
Canteloupe
Chard
Sweet Corn
Cucumbers
Eggplant
Okra
Black-eye Peas
Pepper Plants
Pumpkin
Radishes
New Zealand Spinach
Summer Squash
Sweet Potatoes
Tomato Plants
Watermelon
15-30

Lima Beans
Snap Beans
Beets
Chard
Okra
Black-eye Peas
Pepper Plants
New Zealand Spinach
Summer Squash
Sweet Potatoes

something i used in a small area are earthboxes--they would save you having to till up the area, too. not sure of their site, but you could just google it. i had great luck with tomatoes, zucchini, yellow squash, and jalepenos in them.

Hi Molly..
You could absolutely have a compact mini-garden in your spot. The GOOD thing is, since it's such a small space, taking care of it won't be so much work!

I would suggest the following:

Either:
1) As the other said, do a raised bed, and fill it with good store-bought dirt (probably your simplest solution...)
or lasagna garden (disadvantages would be all the material you'll have to buy & haul in for the 'lasagna layers')... OR

2) Your best option, in my opinion: no raised bed,, just get the weeds, weed-roots, & rocks out with a fork, loosen it up REALLY good, and buy as much good dirt as you can (from Natural Gardener or Great Outdoors, or another garden store with a conscience).. something with lots of compost, hummus, etc.. already in it.. and once you put your plants in, put as much of the GOOD dirt under & around the plants as you can.
Then you can till the leftover stuff in the rest of the bed.
If you do this every year (& keep adding your own compost), your soil will get better & better, and you will have to do much less work every season.
Then cover everything with a good layer of pine bark mulch. The mulch will also decompose into your soil and further improve it.

THEN start a compost pile! This is the best way to start making your own soil. A vermicompost bin is another great way to do the same thing, but more concentrated. Leaves (from your autumn raking), kitchen scraps, b&w newspaper, chicken/cow/rabbit manure, hay, etc.. all go in both of these. And eventually it goes into your garden soil, improving it even more. This takes time though.. which is why you need to buy the good stuff, at first. By next year you can start adding the 'black gold' to your garden.. and that's a great feeling.

Some reasons why your tomatoes probably failed before:

1) Soil not ready (see above)

2) Did you get healthy plants, from a good organic garden store or local farmers market? or, from a big box store (some folks might do fine with these, I would never risk it)..?

3) Did you get varieties that do well in our area? The good stores/farm mkts will sell these.

4) Did you get them in EARLY enough? Preferably mid-March to early-April. The main reason is that they need to get established before the brutal TX heat, and b/c if the nighttime temps are too high by the time they are just getting blossoms, the pollen gets too sticky/heavy in the heat and they might not fruit. So you need to get plants in the ground when nighttime temps are still cool (someone here might know the exact cut-off temp.. high 70's, I think?).

5) Did you feed them?? Tomatoes are heavy feeders, especially in our poor soil...unless you live on the east side, or somewhere with better dirt.

6) Was the soil well loosened/aerated around the plants? If not, the roots struggle too hard to get through our rocky-clay soil and cannot breathe, can't grow, & water can't get to them.

7) Did you give them enough room? How about support- a sturdy tomato cage? The small flimsy cone ones are worthless, IMO... get the biggest cones you can find, or the large folding non-cone ones if you are really serious. But if you have compact bush plants, this isn't as much of an issue..

8) Stink bugs and other pests will likely take over around July, but that's kind of a given.. you can try sucking them up with a hand-vacuum... but usually by then I've gotten a good crop and I just give up (the mosquitoes are too bad to be outside much, and to hot anyway...)

9) How about water? It's best to water in the morning or evening, and just water the soil around the plants, try to keep the plants dry. Make sure they get a good deep watering, about once a week, or more often if it's really hot/dry. They will start to wilt a bit when they need more water. The longer you water them at one time, then leave them alone for as long as they can stand it, the deeper the roots will go. If you give them only shallow, frequent waterings, the roots will stay closer to the surface.

10) Toms need at the very least 4 hrs of direct light a day..

Soooooooooo...
Here's what you need to get started (if you choose option #2):

1) a big garden fork/ spading fork-- which is an investment.. absolutely essential for loosening up our soil. You wiggle it into the soil by putting ALL your weight on it til it goes in- then start pulling up & flipping over the soil, & get all those pesky weeds out (make sure you get all the roots). Rocks too. This will also break up the clumps. Keep pushing the fork down as deep as it can go & scooping it up. Just think of those nice healthy roots going way down in there= healthier plants. It's hard work, but great exercise, and it gets easier.. just do a section each day & you'll be done in no time. Watering the soil a bit helps too.
2) shovel (of course)
3) at least a couple bags of good soil.. and remember soil is everything... it will feed your plants, which will feed you. So don't get cheap junk at walmart or wherever..
Ladybug brand is great, or something similar..
4) a few bags of mulch, either pine bark or pine needle.. if you want a short cut, you can use a thick layer of leaves if you have a leaf pile handy. Mulch will help keep the soil moist after a rain/watering, & help keep soil from getting too hot and dry. Also helps delay weeds somewhat.
5) a bag of Rabbit Hill farms tomato & pepper food (my personal favorite). Put a handful of this into each hole as you put the toms in. Then work another handful in around each plant as they start to fruit, and every few weeks after.
6) a bottle of seaweed-fish solution & a regular sprayer bottle. Mix a half-capful or so with water (fill it up)- and mist the leaves every couple weeks (in the morning, before 9 am, when the leaf 'pores' are still open)... this helps heat/drought tolerance and also feeds your plants.

I hope this doesn't sound complicated,, it really is simple!
You will get into a rhythm and it will just become a natural part of your day.

I would also suggest volunteering for the green Corn Project and planting a garden with them at least once, they use the biointensive double-digging method, which is basically kind of what I do (a simpler version). Or, visit other peoples' gardens (like at the Natural Gardener- theirs is amazing!) to get inspiration & ask for advice.

You could probably do about 3 tomato plants (compact/bush varities might be easier to manage in that small space)... and maybe a few bush cukes and non-vining squash, a pepper or 2. Realistically that's probably all you're going to fit in there, so make sure you are putting in what you really want.
But the biointensive method says.. the healthier your soil (and therefore, your plants), the more you can crowd them together. So keep that in mind.

And don't forget about Austin's great opportunity for a fall/winter/into spring garden: spinach, broccoli, beets, carrots, asian greens, kale, cabbage, brussel sprouts, onions, potatoes,, leeks, peas, etc...!

Good luck.. hope that helps!

Thanks rembetika, you answered a lot of questions that I had as well. That's some excellent information!

a couple clarifications:

All the advice in my post was assuming that you buy seedlings. In my opnion it's not worth growing from seed with a small garden, since you have to buy a pack which then goes to waste cause you just use a couple seeds (also growing from seed takes longer). Better to just buy the seedlings you need, from good stores that get good quality plants, that do well in our area. For more about this, check:
http://www.austinorganicgardeners.org/
Click on 'planting calender'.. and it will give you a guideline as what to plant when. And if you click on the veg, it will tell you what varieties they recommend. The only problem is it doesn't mention heirlooms.. but you can find those in the 3 stores I recommend: Natural Gardener, Great Outdoors, and Gardens on 35th.

((THEN start a compost pile! This is the best way to start making your own soil. A vermicompost bin is another great way to do the same thing, but more concentrated. Leaves (from your autumn raking), kitchen scraps, b&w newspaper, chicken/cow/rabbit manure, hay, etc.. all go in both of these.))

actually if you have one small bin for vermicomposting, you really don't need to (and probably shouldn't) put any manure in there.. it's really just for kitchen scraps, torn b&w newspaper, some leaves, etc..

((And eventually it goes into your garden soil, improving it even more. This takes time though.. which is why you need to buy the good stuff, at first. By next year you can start adding the 'black gold' to your garden.. and that's a great feeling.))

meaning: after a season or 2 when your ENORMOUS leaf pile works itself down to a small pile of the 'black gold'.. then you can start adding THAT (your finished product) to your garden to further improve the soil. And when you see the finished product of your compost, you will see what good dirt is supposed to look/feel/smell like.. which is SO far removed from most of the soil in central-to-west Austin. (East Austin used to be underwater, i.e. a sea bed, hence the better quality soil.)
So, as for your garden plot, eventually it will become more loose good dirt and less sticky, gooey, rocky clay.
The method I'm describing takes patience. So in the beginning, just concentrate on improving the soil right around your plants... since veggie roots don't travel THAT far from the plant.

I can share more about how to do a very simple compost pile, by starting with autumn leaves (you DON'T need to spend any money for fancy composting gadgets!).. just ask if you want to know.

disclaimer: all these things are what I found works for me, learned through years or trial & error (AND from years of asking questions on this very website), considering Austin soil is very tough to work with. But everyone will have different advice. I also believe in frugal gardening (although I have bought a lot of soil, in the beginning, and buy mulch every year.. or just use leaves if things are tight...).. but the work involved is worth it...it helps keep you in shape and of course gardening is good exercise for the mind as well. relaxing/good therapy too. You don't have to pay to go to a gym, you get fresh air, etc. The soil thing was tough on my back at first, but again, every year it gets easier.

You're welcome blancspons!

And Molly, if you're still there, I wanted to add (since I went off about tomatoes and soil, lol) to answer your questions more directly:

Yes as the others said, you can use the privacy fence to put a trellis or staple up some cheap chicken wire/screening material to give them support.. although cukes will go towards where the most light is coming from, and they may grow away from the fence and try to vine up your taller plants... so again bush cukes might be the way to go.
And absolutely, squash is a great choice.. zucchini, straightneck yellow, pattypan... however you can do vining cukes or squash (like spaghetti)... if you don't mind them growing into your yard, on the ground. If your sun is coming from that direction, they may do this.

One word about squash: keep in mind the squash borer may kill them... which is hard to eradicate. So just don't get too attached.

With your space, I would probably just put on row down the middle of the 9x9. Remember to plant things keeping in mind how big they'll be when full grown, not how they look as seedlings. And yes, try to put taller things towards the back, furthest away from your sun source.

A good plan might look like this:
left square:
2 cukes in back, with screen along fence to grow up on.
2 toms in the middle.
2 non-vining squash in front (zucc/yellow/patty pan).

right square: the same or, another option:
2 toms in back
2 eggplant
2 peppers
in between the peppers, plant 2 melons if there is room for them to grow out into the yard.

Remember peppers are heavy feeders like toms. they need food every 2 wks or so. I have never had any luck with bell peppers, only banana and jalapeno seem to work (so far).

And since it's pretty important to have enough space around things for air circulation and to be able to reach things (and weed an so on).. again, try to stick with compact varieties... or just 1 or 2 of each things you want to plant.

Black-eyes peas do well here.. and Garden peas do best in winter-early spring garden. I think green (& other) beans need a specific kind of fertilizer that I haven't given them (which is why they've never done well for me, so far).. you might have better luck though.

Let us know how it goes!