posted 4 years ago
Hello Michael Dotson,
Ozark, eh? We're closer to Jasper. Looking at the map, looks like you are right in a really hilly part of Ozarks. We had free range chickens (mostly Speckled Sussex) for several years but STILL had ticks and chiggers. Yep, I've read that guineas are good for eating ticks, but our experience with chickens taught me ... I can't kill a chicken. Hubs either. And we bought grain for them from a feed store several miles away, and they hid their eggs, and a black snake moved in under the pile of straw in their "chicken house," and altogether they were more trouble than they were worth (to me). They were more like pets than "farm animals;" the neighbor's dog killed the last two and then our neighbor got mad at his dog and left her on a long chain for years. But to have the last two gone was, altogether, a good thing for us; no more chicken house to clean, no more grain to buy and haul. They had their cute side; when I would dig a hole in the ground there they were, eyeing the hole, eyeing me, grabbing worms as soon as they turned up, eager to get into that hole and dig with their own claws. And their chicken poop was nice to have.
I will say, plant some goumis! They seem to love the conditions in my garden at least. They're nitrogen fixers too. And me, I've learned to completely avoid "stone fruits," since once they're producing fruit, unless you go in for spraying chemicals at least more than once a year, they get what I THINK is called "black rot," or "brown rot," whatever; the fruit gets green then turns nasty and eventually rotten black. I did plant some cherry (stone fruit) seeds that came up in a pot, and one of the cherry seedlings is still alive and growing; tho' no pollinator unless one of the other seedlings I'd planted in a patch of weeds might've survived but it's probably the same variety of cherry so probably wouldn't pollinate anyway. We have a big Seckel pear tree that's always done well, and a Moonglow for pollination, which blooms slightly AFTER most of the Seckel blooms have faded ... I'm watching that Moonglow pear tree right about now and trying to think at it, "bloom!" ... it's almost there. Meanwhile the Seckel is covered with blooms.
No, on the farmer's markets. I'm gardening for food for home only. But good luck to you, starting up a garden is the hardest part! Watch out for bermuda grass! Extremely invasive, grows from multiple rootlets along its incredibly long length, browsing animals love to eat it, but in a garden it's really bad, and at least where I am, it's prevalent. Most of the roots are within five or six inches of the surface, but who knows how far down some of those roots may go? Anyway, getting rid of bermuda is one of the hardest things where I'm at. I might say, just buy enough black plastic to cover however much area you're planning on gardening, lay it down and leave it for a year. The sun on the black plastic during the summer kills the bermuda. The easiest way I've found to get rid of bermuda grass, but ... plastic ... Cardboard is just a gift to bermuda grass; the long strands and roots grow under the cardboard with joy and glee, which is why the lasagna garden idea doesn't work IF you have bermuda grass.
Well, 'nuff said, nice to meetcha!
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