Welcome Grnthumber! Glad you're joining in. Your garden looks nice. What a difference edging makes. That's what I need to do.

Glad you joined us. I thought I posted this yesterday, but guess I failed to "submit".

You have a great collection of plants.

Thanks! It helps when you have tons of bricks lying around...I decided to use them just to get them out of the way--plus, we have (actually had--I'm in the process of killing it) bermuda and you know what a PITA that is. I had to put a barrier in place to try to keep it from taking over the beds.

Hi y'all, just moved to 5 acres in southeast Missouri near Perryville in late winter of this year. I've been gardening for about 12 years seriously. I left behind several hundred hosta and perennials when we were transferred. I'm still in "shock and withdrawal," LOL. About 3 dozen of my hosta survived the move which was in January from Nebraska!

The good news is that I have more trees and woods than I ever dreamed of now, a pond, and hummingbirds!!!! I have spent the last few months trying to identify all the many native plants and trees and birds... dodging the occasional timber rattler and copperhead... (there was one IN MY HOUSE this week!!) and finding more native plants for my pond. It has been a blast.

Had fairly good luck with my veggies here this year, although it was a bit of a rocky start with the late freeze and all.

Well, hope you are all having a happy gardening day!!

http://hometown.aol.com/sheilaschnauzies/UnkPlant.jpg

Welcome Sheila! Hope you're enjoying your new home in Missouri. It may take awhile to adjust to your new growing conditions but sounds like it's beautiful already. I'd love to live in the woods. I'm not jealous of the snakes though. lol

Hi All,
I live in Bentonville in NW AR. Been here since 2000. My DH worked here before in 1986 and we kept asking to be sent back.
I've cut flower gardened off an on my whole life, started with zinnias and snap dragons as a kid. Pretty much at that same level today.
Been busy following my husband from home to home. When we moved here, built new on a steep slope and have pretty much avoided gardening as I just didn't have the energy (poor health) or strength to pick ax garden nor did I know how or what to do in such a site and a zone way colder than I was used to. Finished master's degree at UofA and taught but am not working this year as my mother is in need of more help than I could provide while working. So working on my health, building strength, loosing weight, helping her, and FINALLY doing my yard. I hope to learn "rock" gardening on a steep slope from all you experts.
Kat

Welcome Kat. Good luck on your steep yard. Take time and ease into it, as it's pretty hard work. I've been playing on my hillside for about 7 yrs now, and hope to be finishing up in the next 5 yrs...needless to say, the PROCESS is as important as the PRODUCT.

First off, which direction does your hill face? That totally determines your plant choices.

Second, do you have rocks there, or can you get them to the area you're building? They are pricey if you have to buy them, although it's nice to have a truck pull up and unload them.

Third, don't hurt yourself! Even medium sized rocks can be heavy, especially if they roll down on your feet. Remember to be kind to your back along the way. Lift with your legs if at all possible. Always wear cowhide gloves and heavy boots. Get some help from someone younger/stronger than yourself if you need to.

Forth, have fun! This is an excellent creative outlet. Think of it like a 3-D puzzle. Study your rocks, and remember they all have 6 sides. As you play you'll start finding patterns and solutions.

Fifth, think like a 10 year old. If this kid can't safely walk along the wall, the rocks will tumble sooner or later. Once the wall is safely built, add compost and good soil. Remember that drainage must still flow. If there's a draw where water naturally flows during heavy rain, this must be accounted for if you're building a terrace through it. Gravel and/or drain pipe is our friend in these cases. If it's a regular slope and your wall/terrace is under 3 feet high, drainage should be no problem.

Sixth, Trial and Error is your friend.

Have fun!

Welcome Kat, What would we do without our rocky mountainsides? I'm on the top so don't have steep sides in yard or garden,but can't go anywhere else without almost falling off LOL.
We'll have to talk you into planting perenials. They're easier, unless of course you have to use a saw to dig them up among the rocks LOL. I could'nt resist reading your post to beerhog.
When i first started my flower beds i piled all my rocks in a mound with dirt in between than built a dirt path over the top than i overdid buying daylilies one year and the dirt path became a daylily bed. I thought the rocks looked a little bare so fixed a steep rockgarden out of them by filling inbetween rocks. worked great till i had a stroke and fell off every spring fixing things up. The third year i fell and had to go to ER for stitches on forehead. So tore my favorite flower bed down to an exceptable and flat bed. Now am rearrangeing again to containers. Have loved all my flower beds and makng them. That mound of dirt is still my favorite of all my beds. As paul said take your time and enjoy what you do. Best wishes to you and your mom.

I think we'll have to assign pauln our official rock person.
vickie

Thanks Vickie! I'm honored. Right now I'm in rock withdrawal as I've used up most of my rocks. My buddy is scouting construction sites for newly unearthed stones. He'll borrow a trailer and help me gather more for this year's projects. I'm totally dependent on him as it's hard to get many in my Civic hatchback. My neighbors were moving lots of rocks from somewhere yesterday. They just dumped them into a rip-rap pile like you see along the Arkansas River. What a waste! They could have a really nice terrace with a little more labor and some creativity.

Oh yeah, I'll try to snap some photos of my garden soon, and submit them from my work 'puter. I can't seem to figure out how to do this from home. Please remember, photos don't do much justice, but I guess that's the same for everyone. Happy gardening everybody!

Cicada Terrace is my backyard above my house. You can see my waterfall and watergarden on the left. More photos to follow.

Sunny bed constructed 2006. The rocks were recently unearthed at a construction site, so they are quite yellow. They will gray out in the next couple of years and the mosses and lichens will eventually move in. Note that the rocks are Ouachita in origin, so they are chunkier than their flatter Ozark cousins. This makes terrace building harder, but opens up creative avenues.

Paul it is absolutely gorgeous! What is the creeping plant in the bottom picture hanging over the rocks.

BTW, I will not talk about my rocks to you Arkansans again! They pale in comparison.

I love your waterfall and pool. Very nice work.

I have one question. Because of the rocks, are snakes a problem. I always thing of copperheads around rocks.

Thanks Gldno! The trailing plant is a sedum of some sort. I had no idea it would be that agressive. It does have a nice liquid appearance however. Anybody need any sedum? I'm in town, so snakes aren't a problem. The only ones I see are worm snakes and ring-neck snakes. They are small ones who are mostly underground. Max caught one a while back and I let him know that he doesn't need to kill snakes. His standard response was to roll on his back to see if I'd scratch his belly.

Close-up of my waterfall and pond. I figured out how to make a more managable size, so it won't scream quite as loudly.

beautiful and looks so natural. I'd wondered if you were creating natural or contempary. Good work.
vickie

I live in Prairie Grove, Ar, 14 miles west of Fayetteville.We had an Ar. forum but we just told about where we lived and a little bit about ourselves and what we liked to grow. I liked that. Joy

very nice paul. enjoy!

william

welcome, jjappleby, I'm happy to see someone fairly close to me, as I was beginning to feel out of place here. Do you trade? I still have naked lady bulbs that I would let someone dig or that I would trade. Also have purple siberian iris that I will be digging soon. Anyone? And pauln, WOW! Your rocks do have 6 sides. Mine sometimes have as many as 15--not nice blocky sandstone, but chunky chert. Thanks for sharing.

Welcome Joy, always nice to have a new member to share info with.
Mulberryknob,I'm going to ETX for a couple of weeks. When i get back i would like to take you up on a trade. I have daylilies and German iris to trade but i would'nt be sure of the color as i lost all of my tags. also have the wild orange daylilies and purple iris, know where they are. also have some of our wild light blue dwarf iris.
vickie

pauln your pond looks wonderful. Your sedum looks like sedum sarmentosum. I have some growing also. It will eventually take over the place if you let it. I just grab handfuls and throw it out when it spreads farther than I want. Very easy to root if you move it. I have sent trades of it to other people with no problems.

Thanks guys and gals. As we all know, our babies are a labor of love. The sedum was given to me last year(!)and like most groundcovers, I'll soon rue the day I planted it. It does look kinda groovy right now lapping and splashing amongst the rocks in a very viscous liquid kinda way.
Mulberryknob, if you can figure out how to build with chert, then my hat's off to you indeed! The chert that comes to my mind is mostly fist sized. It would be lots and lots of work, but could make an interesting wall. Sandstone is such a wonderful rock. I have an outdoor dolly with knobby inflatable tires for moving the really heavy stuff up my front steps. It's the best $50 I've ever spent. The huge rocks sometimes have to be rolled uphill. This is not quite as hard as it sounds if you can avoid having to pick up the rock entirely. Just remember to keep some weight on the ground and roll one side at a time. And always, watch your feet and have an escape plan in case it starts rolling the wrong direction.

paul- somewhere in my past i read that you can apply buttermilk on rocks for quick lichen growth. this is from 60 yr old memory however!

william- in yellville

Thanks William. I think you take buttermilk, or beer and blend it with the desired moss. I assume flat beer would be better than bubbly if using a blender. Now I'm having visions of green beer all over my ceiling and walls. Anyway, this product is painted on the desired rocks. I think shady ones should take better than sunny ones.

I'm going to try this during the winter. It seems that's the time that the mosses are sporing. I've not heard of this method for lichens, but it's worth a whorl.

A friend of mine tried this on some of her rocks, and her dogs promptly lapped it up. So, this is something to remember if trying. I wonder if a hefty dose of cayenne would discourage the dogs/cats without harming the moss.

Looks like I've got a science project to work on. I'll report any results.

Vickie, I'm afraid I already have all the plants you mentioned--even the dwarf native iris. But, if you want to pay the postage, I can send you some nice bulbs. It takes between $8 and $10 to send a dozen to central Arkansas. I sent some to LIttle Rock recently.

Paul our chert ranges from egg through fist to basketball to half-your-living-room-couchsized. And not at all so regularly shaped. I have not tried to build stacked walls--just used the larger ones to outline beds which I filled with good soil.

I'm in West Plains, Mo., been gardening all my life, passed down from my Dad, I'm 51 and can't get enough plants! Waiting for it to dry out to get the garden in, so glad we waited or it would of been washed away by massive flooding last week.

Here is a link that might be useful: Country Pleasures

I live on TableRock Lake in Kimberling City, MO. Are there any gardeners on this site from that area? Ozarks/SW MO

Is this the latest of this type of thread? I can't figure out why didn't respond to pauln's beautiful rock garden and water feature. Maybe it was when my old computer and dial up made Garden Web impossible. I live in McDonald County in SW MO.

Looks like only one other Oklahoma and no Kansas! I used to post on the Oklahoma forum under ilene_in_neok, but most of those folks are in zone 7 and I am in zone 6, just 19 miles from the Kansas line and 50 miles due north of Tulsa. So their climate is different than mine and they have that red sandy dirt while I have black clay -- and since moving out to the country, lots of limestone rocks! I thought maybe I'd fit in better here, and I already knew a few of you. I wonder where all the KS folks post?

I am 66, Hubs will soon turn 71, I was a backyard town gardener before we moved "to the country" three years ago. We have 1.67 acres. I've gardened a little, off and on, most of my adult life, but only in earnest since I retired at age 61, I was born in KS but we moved to OK when I was 7, so I grew up in a little town just across the state line called Copan.

Since this was started in '07, I wonder if some of these folks are still coming here?

Hubs and I both have Missouri roots in our genealogy. His Jones family lived in Greene and Lawrence Counties between 1840 and 1867, then moved to KS. My Peabody family lived in Cabool, MO and then moved to Gentry, Benton County, AR, and my Britt family lived in Crawford and then Howell Counties in MO before moving, also, to KS. This was my mother's side of the family, my dad's side were from Nebraska.

I write on a blog sometimes, not too often these days but I'll probably post more in winter. I think the second-earliest post has pictures of our place. I tried to put a link below but it was rejected. These GW forums have changed so much from the way they worked when I posted a few years ago. If you go to my Member Page, it's listed there, though.

Hi Jimnall - I can't recall anyone posting that's from your area, unless it was a long time ago and I've forgotten, but you're still welcome to join in.

Paul DID post some beautiful photos and I didn't respond either. I have an excuse. It would've been during our kitchen fire remodel.

I seem to have missed a lot of this thread. I am sorry I haven't welcomed newcomers. We need more gardeners here to keep this current and lively.

I am guilty of not being here as much....I, like Ilene, blog and I can't even do that as timely as I would like.

I will do better.

Welcome to all. We still live northwest of Springfield, Mo. on a farm. I don't garden as intensely as I once did but still do garden, both ornamental and vegetable (and fruit).

Hey all!. I'm is south Springfield. Born and raised here and been at this place for 25 years. Always piddled growing something but got serious a couple of years ago using this and some other free sources. I now have 9 raised beds and this year was excellent for just about all the crops. Learn so much here....so thanks everyone!

Hi Ya'all I'm north of Springfield,and, just a few miles east of the northern end of Stockton lake. Just love it here and feeling lucky to have nice sandy soil.
Really enjoyed reading this thread and wondered if many of the original posters were still active.
I've been gardening for more years than I care to admit but the Ozarks is a new place for me. I'm learning a lot from neighbors and others here on the forum.
Anyone raising fruit trees? I'm interested in tips or recommendations.
bethb

Hello -- I'm in Joplin, southeast of the city.

Have been gardening since the 1960's, but was dragged to nurseries for years by my parents when growing up. I thought it was all a big *yawn*. Now my daughter is immersed, as well, so we have fun sharing plants, etc.

This forum has lots of wonderful people -- I learn so much from them.
Sunny

I know this is an old thread but...why not open it back up?

I'm in Fayetteville, AR and my fiancee and I started a community garden at our apartment complex last year!

The landlord installed an 8 x 16 raised-bed (with railroad ties, unfortunately, but it works and we tried to protect as well as we could). We are expanding this year and super excited!

We hope to get more of the families who don't eat a lot of vegetables involved but that has been a struggle so far. I need to teach cooking classes, I think.

Any tips for efficient gardening, the best raised bed plan or alternatives to raised beds are welcome! I'm always looking for new things to try, I often use some of this garden as an experiment for what will grow.

This winter we had a makeshift greenhouse garden and were able to grow some kale, arugula and green onions.

Welcome to the Ozarks forum Mmiesse! There are two other Gardenweb forums that might be helpful; Potager Gardens and Square Foot Gardening. Not trying to run you off of course but I think both of those will have lots of info about raised beds. I have given my hubby permission to cut down a tree that will allow me a nice sunny spot for raised beds. The tree is still there so I may not get to it this summer.

Beautiful! Makes me wish I had a hilly yard....and a better back to haul all that rock and mulch.

Just beautiful!

Farmington AR just west of Fayetteville. We just moved in this past winter from a smaller house with an even smaller yard in Fayetteville. Nearly finished remodeling the inside of the house, now it's time to make the two acre hay field outside a cornucopia of fruits, vegetables, and berries.

Welcome Jdevers! Congrats on your new space. I love having a large yard and bet you will too.

More from Pomona, MO - I tend to garden as a way to solve problems. There were awkward spaces between the walk leading to our front door and the house. Grass grew but was so annoying to mow. Now, i have this pretty water feature that combines native Ozark rock with river rock harvested back in Wisconsin (our native state) and pea gravel. I started with tall stands of saw grass as a background but it is so invasive, I dug it all up and moved it. The fountain is on a remote control along with the rope light and I can turn it on or off with the flick of a switch. When the plantings are in their prime, the rope light provides a glow effect. Pretty, night and day.

Pomonaflower, that is beautiful! I just moved from Florida (where I lived for nearly 25 years) to Bella Vista, AR. Wow, I love it here. It is more like the area of Virginia where I am originally from. You did an awesome job with your rock garden. It is giving me some ideas. Thanks for sharing.

Sharbear50 - we have friends in Bella Vista!!! I have to confess that the grunt work on these projects was done by someone else. I'm in my 70's and there is no way my body would let me do any of this.

The fountain has an interesting back story. At the close of my professional life, I was a self-employed web site designer. I did a site for a fellow who installed fountains and ponds and, due to his circumstances, never got paid. After several years, I simply wrote off the debt. Then, out of the blue, I got a call from him. Seems he got "religion" and wanted to compensate me for my work. He asked if I would like a pond or fountain installed at his expense. I leaped at the opportunity. He traveled more than 600 miles, and spent three very hot days here, digging the hole for the tank, installing the fountain, etc. We did put him up and feed him, but he worked like a mule! In the end, we were both very happy with the results.

pomonaflower, what a wonderful story. Glad it worked out for you. It looks great!

Even better than getting paid. Very pretty!

I'm in Sunrise Beach, right on the water at Lake of the Ozarks. I have been longing for this forum to become more populated! It is very different growing here than it is in St. Louis, where we were until retiring here.

ROCKY!

We love it, and are gradually getting our beds and space going. Had to cut down a tree that shaded our deck to get any sun in the yard...but now another tree seems to be shading the deck a bit too.

Mulching is harder here--the pill bugs are KILLIN' me!

I'd love to hear from anybody in this neck of the woods!

Just moved from SouthTexas to Sharp Co., AR. Now I truly rock!
I lived in the Rockies, but never saw anything like this--gotta go raised beds. I am a no till gardener anyway & I figure once I manage to get plants started, the roots will find a way.

Seems like I'm not the only who just moved here. In Springfield, moved here from Sacramento, California. I'm pretty sure this yard has a maximum of 4 inches of "soil" and then it is one giant rock. Going to have to adjust my gardening expectations even more than I had planned! LOL.

Welcome to Theresa67 and SoTX. Yes you will find gardening different but it is possible and you will be amazed at what you can grow.

If you can't find time to build a frame for the raised beds consider the layering of cardboard or other paper thickly and then piling on soil, shredded (or not) leaves and other mulch type material. By spring you will be amazed at what you have and what you can grow.

You just need 6 inches of soil to grow most vegetables and you can get that pretty quickly.

Good luck and let us hear how you do next spring.

Vilonia, AR. Might not be Ozarks exactly but this was the closest group I could find