Hello! New Backyard Gardener

Hi, I'm a fairly new backyard gardener and I'm hoping to pick up some tips. Zone 8a.

Welcome to Permies! And welcome to the new gardener club, I just started a few years ago.

We have a lot of Texans in the crowds here. If you'd like to ask for any particular tips start a thread or search. The regional forums are also very helpful. Here's the one for Texas in particular.

What is your particular garden situation like? Flat? Slope? What area of Texas are you in? I hear it's quite diverse, though I've unfortunately never been.

Share some of your goals or aspirations for your garden with us! We permies love to dream together and troubleshoot along the way.

Howdy Laci. Welcome to permies. What are  you planning to grow? As L Johnson mentioned Tejas is very big with several different soil types & weather conditions. I'm from Centex so I have good input on that region mostly. What grows, what doesn't, when to plant, when not to plant, etc. Have you seen permies gardening for beginners forum yet? It has a lot of useful info.

I'm primarily working on a pollinator garden. I've been going to plant classes at the local library taught by Master Gardeners.
I have a small red bud tree in a pot that I need to get planted some time and I've been working on reading up on flowers and small bushes that would be good to plant for the various seasons that are also good in this climate.

I will have a small raised bed herb and vegetable garden. This year I successfully grew cherry tomatoes, red okra (they loved the heat), basil, and thyme (I had them under a sun shade). The bore worms killed my squash early in the summer. I'd like to try growing them again once I figure out how to get rid of the worms. I'd like to grow larger tomatoes next year and some peppers along with additional herbs (oregano, yarrow, dill, cilantro) .

I do have some garlic and shallots planted in a raised bed now. I was able to harvest some garlic this spring, this is my first experiment with the shallots.

Our soil has a lot of clay, it can be hard to get through when it is dry and our back yard has a very slight slope.

Questions:

When is the best time to plant the red bud tree? It was a recent gift from my grandmother.

Are nematodes the best option for dealing with the bore worms with out using pesticides?

If possible, I'd love a berry bush for me and the birds, any suggestions?

I suggest looking into chili petin peppers. They are native to the area & do very well there. They are perennial too. Birds will eat them if there is nothing else available for them.

American Beautyberry is also native to the area. Birds like it. Makes an amazing jelly too. Rub the leaves on your skin for mosquito repellent.

Laci, welcome to the forum!

Some sage plants are really pretty and butterflies love them.

I have had good luck with blue sage, autumn sage and I have the wild mealy blue sage that grows wild here.