We are selling our home in the Missouri Ozarks in order to shorten my commute, and I wanted to list it here in hopes that somebody might be interested who'd appreciate the garden. It's been a great house/property, but it's time for us to be in a location that's more convenient for our family.
Over the past five years we have planted lots of useful plants, so the property has a serious jumpstart on a food forest—in this growing season, the new owner should get apples, figs, persimmons, elderberries, cherries, blackberries, blueberries, aronia, hickory nuts, maypops, juneberries, and mulberries. Maybe also peaches, pears, wild plums, hazelnuts, and Chinese mulberry. On the herbaceous layer, there's mint, thyme, yarrow, sage, fennel, chives, St. John's wort, cardoons, and lots of flowers including milkweed, daylily, daffodils, and iris. There's also a raised bed area ready for a small vegetable plot right by the house.
Ben Tegeler of Ozark Mountain Permaculture helped us develop a permaculture land plan. I also wrote up the orchard/food forest in detail recently for Pomona, the journal of North American Fruit Explorers.
The house is a "starter permie" property on about 4/10 of an acre in a rural subdivision between Branson West and Reeds Spring, Missouri. There's lots of land available around it if you wanted to expand your holdings, but for now you could buy our (3BR, 2,300 sqft) house at a reasonable price and enjoy the garden. It is in an HOA but there's no enforcement and very little concern on the part of neighbors about typical permie behaviors like keeping chickens, etc. It's really in the middle of the woods and we have loved seeing tons of wildlife: tons of butterflies, stick insects, salamanders, many different birds.
We have planted and managed the garden in a "more than organic" permie manner, and chosen varieties that are locally adapted so as to fruit well without sprays. Most of the fruit trees are from Ames Orchard in Fayetteville, AR, who have a great reputation for quality plants. (And we have been really happy with what they have sold us.) Bonus: the house will come with a compost bin (partially full) and a modest pile of arborist wood chips. :-D
The house is in good shape and has lots of space. My wife has especially enjoyed having a large basement space for her studio space as a multidisciplinary artist, so if you want to sew/spin/craft/whatever, it's well set up for that. Since it's a quiet rural area and a dead end street, our kids have been able to play outside freely.
We'll be listing tomorrow, asking $269,900. I'll post a link here when I have it. You can see a little map of the major plants below, as well as some fruit and flower images just for fun. We would love for somebody new to own this property who will appreciate the plants and continue developing this as a permie property!
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