alaska jack- while i can't help, i can relate.i bought a house in yellville, ar over the internet around the end of january. moving close to the white and buffalo river. love to flyfish. i am currently in china and will return within 6 months. have been checking out this forum in order to locate nurseries, compost suppliers etc. love to garden too. specialize in tomatoes and collect tomato seeds. i am up to 250 varieties.
i wish you the very best.
william may

William May, Thanks for the note. Although I once bought a restored Model A Ford over the internet.... I think I would have to see a property "in person" before making a purchase! (Who says old dogs can't learn new tricks!) But then I've never actually been in that area... so would have to check it out first. (have only driven across Arkansas on I-70) Anyway... I also love to fly fish and just be on the water. Also interested in growing tomatoes... my dad was a pro!
Jack

jack- my wife flew back to check the property before the purchase. she is from nw ar and i lived in siloam springs for 3 yrs.
beautiful country and perfect for fishing and motorcycling.
william

Howdy! I beat you both back here.

My husband and I are living with my parents in Harrison as we try to 1) sell our home in Florida, 2) find a new job for Husband, and then 3) find a house near said job.

It's beautiful here... I can't believe how much I've missed it. The green hills and blue sky and clean air just take my breath away. Can't wait to spend a day on the Buffalo, but I've got a six-month-old and we're not quite ready to be separated for a whole day yet.

I've been cruising past here frequently-- the Florida forum is always chatty and was a great source of knowledge to me while I lived there. Thought this forum might be the same, but alas, it's pretty sparsely populated. If you find another busy Ozarks gardening forum somewhere else, let me know!

Best of luck in your home search, Jack! William, this is great tomato-growing climate. You're going to love it.

We're a quiet bunch! Not really..it's just that time of year when we are mostly out in the gardens working. It is veggie time. When it gets really hot..or really cold..things do pick up.

When my husband retired, we were drawn to this area, too, and wouldn't return to our former state for anything. Arkansas has been good to us..and good for us. I've met the most wonderful friends in person thru this Ozark Forum and hope you do, too. Welcome and hope to see you all here for a long time.

Welcome to all of you. I'm in the tip of the Ozarks and loving it. We've been here since 89 and will probably be here til our toes turn up.

I hope it's everything you all want it to be. I know the fishing and camping areas are here. We live close to Heber Springs and the Greer's Ferry Lake and it's just beautiful.

Of course we have to fight the rocks for gardening space and keep the critters run off but eventually it seems to be coming to be. ;-)

Enjoy the area and the folks around this area are really nice and up around the Missouri parts too!

Nancy

We moved to MO, 10 years ago, from CA - a little north of you folks. Love the country and had a farm that was heaven on earth. Unfortunately, we didn't count on getting older so last year moved to town. What a difference! Living in Springfield now and find trying to garden in lawn with no dirt a real trial. I'm beginning to wonder if it's worth all the expense and work of hauling in dirt, mulch and rocks -- can't believe we are buying dirt and rocks in MO!! Any other gardeners in this area?

I have posted about moving back to Arkansas also, but your talk of rock and no dirt interests me. We have gone down and looked at a beautiful piece of property overlooking a small private lake. The lack of dirt and rock is my concern. I was curious if there is anyone in the area that relocated from the Midwest area? I live in Iowa, corn country and have been spoiled by nice soft black dirt. I have been doing some checking into raised beds. I garden mostly in shade. Love the mophead hydrangeas and don't have much luck with anything that blooms on old wood. Would love to hear from the northern transplants. Thank you!

We moved up to this Ozark Mt. acreage 22 years ago. I am formerly from Idaho. It took a lot of adjusting for me, but if you are interested in what all I have grown on our sparse soil, you can check out my Picture Trail albums. They have a link on my member page.

Marian

Hi, All...

Jan-MO, My name is Jan, too. From Violet's recent posts, it sounds like there is an active gardening community in Springfield, Sounds like an Alpine and Rock garden is the way to go, there. (No dirt hauling required!)

This spring, my husband and I drove across the top tier of Arkansas from Fayetteville to Cherokee Village getting a feel for the countryside. At this point in time, we hope to be moving to Eureka Springs before winter.

We met REALLY nice people everywhere, and saw lots of great property,

Our favorite place was outside of Mountain Home on a couple of acres, with a view from the deck that looked out to forever, across Bull Sholes Lake and on what must have been on the Missouri side, green hills and valleys. We thought the price ($139,000) was reasonable and I liked the fact that there was a garden spot already established. However we would have been rar away from anything but a small country store, and we do enjoy the company of civilization from time to time. (grin)

Marian, your property is gorgeous! I hope ours is almost as lovely in twenty years time!

I have learned a lot about gardening in conditions of alkaline soil, extreme heat, ravenous critters, winter nights below freezing, and late psring frosts here in the desert. I feel like I am ready to tackle anything, now, and another place will only be an improvement.

Bornagain, it sounds as though we'll need to learn about lasagna gardens. I've also been researching chicken tractors for soil improvement (and free eggs.)

Nancy, is Heber Springs near Mount Magazine? Those pictures that someone posted were breathtaking! I have a feeling we will be exploring the state for a long time.

Willaim, we looked at a place in the River Valley down a remote graville road, near Flippin. We stopped to talk to one of the residents who was out walking his beagle, and were impressed by how close-nit the community seemed to be, even though the homes were usually out of each other's sight. I think you'll like it there.

Fuzzy, I hope you are starting to get settled in Harrison, if that is where you are planning to stay.

AlaskaJack...HOT is a relative thing! We are looking forward to being cool in August. (LOL)

I'm sure you won't have any problem finding exatly what you want. If the house near Mountain Home, with the great view sounds like what you might want, we saw it courtesy of a nice gentleman named Pat at Century 21 there. It has been on the market for some time in May, so it may be gone now.

Kaye, thank you for the warm welcome. I'm looking forward to learning a lot more, here!

welcome to all the newcomers to the Ozarks, both the area and the forum. I don't get on and post much, do more lurking and enjoying the comments. it is very informative and fun, with everybody getting a family type feeling.

I was born and raised here and do love it,even though my hometown is way to big for me(12,000 LOL)!

Alaskajack, my sister in laws boyfriend was from Juneau. He really enjoys it down here now, but we have bugs and I guess they don't. Took some getting used to.

Welcome again
Tammy

My mom is going to sell 5 acres of lakefront property on Bull Sholes Lake. BEAUTIFUL!!!! It has been in our family for many years

Welcome Jack, We looked for land for a while and ended up in south central mo.(my grandparents old place). We have hauled in some compost and the tomatoes look good! Born again, You might be interested in knowing that we moved here from north of DM, IA.(zone 4) Yea there is alot of rocks, but they help the drainage, Ha! We had lived there for 25 years and had the good iowa dirt and had built it up so this here is a challenge, probably won't never plant as much as we did there, but there is already so many beautiful trees and plants down here and it seems like things grow faster, probably the warmer climate. I am looking forward to doing some raised beds and some plants that I couldn't grow up there, like hydrangeas, brought many hosta's and daylillies and lots of other starts. I will be busy until I have to move to town!

Hi all,
We're building in Bull Shoals on property that backs to the Army Corp property. It's beautiful there and can't wait to get there to watch the buildout. Meanwhile our home is on the market which is...let's see...slower than dead.
I might have to fire our agent (me) lol.

In any case our concern is landscaping on a rock. Coming from the Chicago area, where there is plenty of dirt (black), there is hardly any in our area of Bull Shoals. I'm hoping to pick up some pointers and ideas for minimal care landscaping because like AlaskaJack, the plan is to be on the boat most of the time.

We'd also like to hook up with some folks when we get down there as we know about 3 people so far. So, AlaskaJack or anyone else, drop us an email.

By the way, anyone that is thinking of moving to the area, hold off for about 6 months until I get my Arkansas license.
:)

Thanks,
Gary