About Cultivate Austin
CUltivate Austin is
A family owned and operated business founded by husband and wife creative duo Samantha and Thomas. After spending a decade experimenting, learning, and fine tuning their skills they eventually decided to combine their efforts to create Cultivate Austin. Thomas tinkered with a variety of systems, continually taking on larger and more specialized projects. Samantha focused on homesteading began pooling resources and sharing knowledge about gardening and education
After moving to Austin with their family they decided to create a business that married their skills, creativity and passion for connecting people to nature. Cultivate Austin defines and realizes dreams of ideal living with full service design, building, and garden coaching. They love to create unique solutions to fit individual needs while transforming spaces into unique works of art.
What we do
Connect you to your space with bespoke design
Create unique and exciting solutions
Cultivate land through garden coaching
what excites us
Integrating natural elements into our projects
Combining the outdoors and indoors
Transforming spaces into unique works of art
Thinking outside of the box
Meet the owners
Thomas
Lead Builder
Samantha
Lead Gardener & Designer
Our Story
Our story began in 2008 when, during the great recession, we converted a Greyhound bus into a veggie oil and solar powered motorhome and made a variety of solid attempts to self educate and simplify. We had a lot of fun learning carpentry, electrics, plumbing mechanics and how to get the most out of a small space. We challenged each other to be more sustainable and we were both willing to take risks and experiment which allowed us ample opportunity to fail, improve and grow. We travelled the Untied States for more than a year, saw some amazing things and met some even more amazing people - you know who you are!
Eventually with a lot of help and fine fortune we bought land on the edge of the Florida Everglades and put what we had learned to the test in creating a home and farmstead (Tinker Farmstead) for our growing family. We we lived off the land, raising (and occasionally butchering) animals - chickens, pigs, sheep, ducks, and rabbits - and went as deep as we knew how into an alternative/natural living lifestyle. We homeschooled our kids, recycled scrap metal and made our own toothpaste. Yeah. Needless to say we were dirt poor within a year and lacking the skill sets, connections or patience to focus on the production of a cash crop and unwilling to dedicate every weekend to markets we began farming experiences by teaching regular workshops and manicuring our acreage to showcase the myriad experimental systems that we used to be self sufficient.
We came to the Austin area during the mandatory evacuation preceding hurricane Irma (2017), and in the aftermath that decimated our livelihood, made the decision to stay. Having existed as transients turned eco roadside attraction for almost a decade we made a conscious effort to shift focus to stability and permanence and began sharing knowledge gained through research and development in foundational pursuits that encompassed residential home and land development and education, specifically of pre-K and primary age children who we found had a natural and hither-to largely underdeveloped affinity for the nuanced connections between natural elements in both wild and cultivated systems.
As artists and creatives we began to brainstorm ways that we could combine our accumulated skills to benefit others. We started working on larger projects and realized through interaction and feedback that we really had something special to offer. Cultivate Austin was born of a cumulation of the years we spent learning, growing, and creating together. Our desire and mission is to help empower others on their own journeys with their land; to build beautiful spaces that spark joy, to tend to life and to provide fertile ground for warm, personal, and ultimately humans experiences.