Writer, Spike Gillespie, lives in Central Austin, just east of the University of Texas and downtown. The small, charming homes in her neighborhood were most likely built in the 1940s and 1950s.

Yard Farm's Zach Herigodt (r) and Dare Lamberson (l) in Spike's backyard, pre-Yard Farm

The yards are good sized, and the houses not too close.

Spike Gillespie's backyard before Yard Farm

Like many yards in the aging neighborhood, some of the trees have seen better days, as have the lawns.

Spike's original garden bed, growing an interesting crop.

She admits to neglecting her yard for some time; not out of laziness, she told me, but out of busyness. It’s easy to believe when you know that in addition to being a writer, Spike also teaches writing to adults and children, is a wedding officiant and blesser of babies and a whole lot more. Mostly the yard served to give her menagerie of four dogs and a cat someplace to stretch their multiple legs and do what critters are wont to do.

Spike's yard shortly after Yard Farm

After Zach Herigodt with Yard Farm came out to Spike property and surveyed the area, he came up with a plan to create various quadrants. Now Spike’s yard has a place for the garden, the dogs, the chickens she will soon have, as well as the humans.

Spike's friends admiring the thriving garden

All photographs on this page, taken by Spike Gillespie, and appear on her blog.