Central Arkansas Permaculture Folks

Friends,

I am a relatively new convert to permaculture and natural farming. In March (2013), I bought 14 acres on Wye Mountain, which is in between Lake Maumelle and the Arkansas River. Coincidentally, it's also in between Little Rock and Conway. My wife and I (both in our late 20's) planted an annual garden, dug some swales, bought chickens, began construction on a cob root cellar, and we're currently working on a food forest. We don't really know what we're doing, ha.

Are there any permaculture folks in Central Arkansas? We'd love to meet you...even if you're amateurs, like us. My wife and I are very interested in community organizing, as well. Personally, I'd even be willing to help lead/organize a group in Central Arkansas. I'm very interested in developing food forests on public land...or maybe even some guerrilla gardening. Lots of big plans, but we know we can't do it by ourselves.

Look forward to meeting you!

Peace and love,
D & P

Welcome to permies Drew !

Hello, Drew...Welcome. Great to hear of more folks in Arkansas. We are farther north near Mountain View in the mountains. I know a lot of organic growers in this area with permaculture leanings...although I know we are scattered all over...just not always visible. We usually run into gardener/farmers at markets here that we would never have known about otherwise...some permies at heart without knowing the word...I think that is a great way to find out who is growing in your area. I haven't been to one but friends sell at the the river market in LR and I thought Conway had an active market. I have a plant and seed exchange here late march or early april...I can let you know when if you would like to travel this far. And there is a seed exchange at the Ozark folk center in February that is all open pollinated seeds.

Judith Browning wrote:Hello, Drew...Welcome. Great to hear of more folks in Arkansas. We are farther north near Mountain View in the mountains. I know a lot of organic growers in this area with permaculture leanings...although I know we are scattered all over...just not always visible. We usually run into gardener/farmers at markets here that we would never have known about otherwise...some permies at heart without knowing the word...I think that is a great way to find out who is growing in your area. I haven't been to one but friends sell at the the river market in LR and I thought Conway had an active market. I have a plant and seed exchange here late march or early april...I can let you know when if you would like to travel this far. And there is a seed exchange at the Ozark folk center in February that is all open pollinated seeds.

Judith,

Thanks for the response! I love Mountain View. I actually grew up in Mountain Home and I spent some time playing music with folks from around your area. I'd love to know when you're planning your seed swap. Yes, I frequent the local markets and I've met a lot of organic farmers/gardeners. However, a lot of them don't even realize what permaculture is all about. Ha. We'll show them the light, eventually.

Thanks again for the post!
Drew

Hello! I am living on 200 acres in Mena, AR, which is a fair piece from you, but in the same basic area. I have been reading Sepp's books and watching his videos, and I'm going to get started here very soon. Hope this note finds you all well and willing to interact!

Kevin

I just rented 8 acres in southwest Arkansas (Hope). It'd be fun to meet you guys sometime!

Kevin Byrne wrote:Hello! I am living on 200 acres in Mena, AR, which is a fair piece from you, but in the same basic area. I have been reading Sepp's books and watching his videos, and I'm going to get started here very soon. Hope this note finds you all well and willing to interact!

Kevin

Kevin,

Great to hear from you! Mena is a little ways away from us, but I've made the drive plenty of times. I love Sepp's work! Glad to know there are other folks in Arkansas!

Drew

Hello!

I'm from Batesville, Arkansas.. It's been about a year now since your post.. how is everything going?

Hi Kevin,
How is Mena? I have never been there, but my grandmother was born there.
How is the area on crime and what is the population size there?
I have been thinking of moving someday.

Drew I grew up in the area if wye my Bigelow perryville. My family and I are moving back, my children and I by June or sooner. It would be good to talk. I plan on homesteading on a few family acres. I have been living in the innercity in northern Illinois since 2002, and i just started tinkering in my yard. I would like to hear of your ideas and progress if you are still in the area. My email is Chrishartig@icloud.com.

Lynne and Drew, I am sorry but I didn't notice the posts until today. Mena is not the greatest place, but we are making do here. A lot of drugs out in them thar hills unfortunately. Very poor, low education, but they are trying. The local high school is one of the higher rated in this state.

My permaculture is going slowly but surely. We had a commercial greenhouse donated, have had good success with a single hugel bed using Paul Gautchi covering methodology (wood chip cover, had to amend the soil just a bit).

Hi, I am new to permaculture and located in central Arkansas as well. I have a bit of land in the country that I would like to create a food forest on but have not been very successful in finding types of plants from this area to use. Perhaps some of you could suggest some interesting types of nitrogen fixing trees to use. I have currently some red buds and access to get mimosas. Not sure if I want to use locusts trees or not. What would some other good choices be for Arkansas?

I am just southwest of Little Rock, but operating on an urban/home scale.

Drew Buff wrote:Friends,

I am a relatively new convert to permaculture and natural farming. In March (2013), I bought 14 acres on Wye Mountain, which is in between Lake Maumelle and the Arkansas River. Coincidentally, it's also in between Little Rock and Conway. My wife and I (both in our late 20's) planted an annual garden, dug some swales, bought chickens, began construction on a cob root cellar, and we're currently working on a food forest. We don't really know what we're doing, ha.

Are there any permaculture folks in Central Arkansas? We'd love to meet you...even if you're amateurs, like us. My wife and I are very interested in community organizing, as well. Personally, I'd even be willing to help lead/organize a group in Central Arkansas. I'm very interested in developing food forests on public land...or maybe even some guerrilla gardening. Lots of big plans, but we know we can't do it by ourselves.

Look forward to meeting you!

Peace and love,
D & P

Hey Drew (and everyone in Central Arkansas), I'm fairly close to you, just west of Pinnacle Mountain. I'd love to start building community with local permaculture enthusiasts. Already made a few friends in the Morrilton area, so I know we're out there!

hau Drew, glad to have you aboard. For us there is always much to do and little time. We have our Guinea Hogs and will be adding poultry this year if all goes well.

We are doing everything by hand at this point, just means we are fully in touch with earth mother.

Hello Friends,

I am also a new to permaculture (actually since about 2 yrs ago) when I stumbled upon the subject while watching random organic farming videos on Youtube. I have lived in the Ozark foothills near Heber Springs for about 15 years now and love being out of the rat race. I have almost 10 acres (zone 7) of semi rocky sandy loam soil with the top soil being only a few inches deep so gardening here has been a big challenge. Luckily I have an unlimited supply of highly composted mulch from two nearby towns. I have been adding that to my garden as well as constructing raised beds out of the compost that I plan to add manure and rock dust to. A food forest is also something that would love to design and start this year. I am really glad that I found this website and hope to get to know you all. I haven't really met anyone in my everyday life that has ever heard of permaculture but love to tell people about it as best as I can. I am very excited about all of this and I want to thank you all for you posts have been a great inspiration to me and some very interesting reading.

Brad

Blessings out to central Arkansas permaculture folks.  We're in year  2 of market farming on old family farm . First year  implementing permaculture.  Hoping to connect with y'all.

hau Bradley, glad to have you here.  I am sure you will be able to learn quite a lot of different methods to build soil and all other things permaculture.

Redhawk

hau T Komla, welcome to permies and permaculture. Glad you are keeping that family farm alive.

Redhawk

Functionally based in Little Rock, I've got my eye on every portion of the State. As this thread begins in the Wye Mountain area, I should mention that Tom Frothingham's nursery on HWY 10 is probably the closest full-service heritage varietals and information connection available to me and you.

As to Mena, Mountain View, Mountain Home, Hope and Villiona, I've got feelers throughout these areas because of my longstanding family and extended family connections. This month, I will be completing Geoff Lawton's online PDC certificate course. And, though I'm not yet ready to dawn the title of a true "green thumb," I have successfully entered into projects in Pine Bluff, Conway, Clinton, Mulberry and just yesterday a new one in Cabot. I'll be working with solar expert Jerry Landrum, of the NWA Permaculture Group, on the perfect back-up power system for a couple hiding out deep in the back woods.

Please do include me in y'alls regional mailing lists, and community meet-ups!
Tom-Scott Gordon chezkiva (at) att.net
(501) 225-1323

Over near Memphis here, halfway through the PDC via Oregon State Univ.

Welcome Tom-Scott and David Corbett  please add your location, and other info (check my own profile info as an example) so we can give the best help answers when you have questions, it makes it easier for others to know what to recommend.

It's great to see fellow Arkansans here.

Redhawk

Hi to everyone in Arkansas!  My wife and I have land on Wye Mountain.  We want to be included as the Central Arkansas folks plan events and visit about self sufficiency.  

Welcome sailor ford, I love Wye Mountain.

My family has newly to Arkansas Ozarks. We had been urban/suburban homesteaders and we finally were able to buy our dream property in Newton County. We're looking to trick it out with permaculture for sure.  We've been fortunate enough to take some basic permaculture training but we're certainly not experts. We'd like to network with others. Technically our property is in the national forest and our closet city (lololololol) is Mt. Judea.

Welcome Juniper,
The way one becomes expert in anything is by using what they learned, observing what works and what doesn't work and after discarding what doesn't work, continuing trying other things and repeating the process.
At some point you will have gained enough knowledge to always have success more often than failure.
Eventually others will look to you for help with their problems.

Redhawk

Hello everyone!

Just another newbie to permaculture, I moved into north of Bald Knob, AR. That's just a bit south of Batesville for those who don't know it. My family and I literally moved in this summer, and have almost 3 acres of land to play with, although 2 of those acres are pretty overgrown. I'd love to be a part of the local permaculture community, so please add me to any mailing lists about workshops, meet-ups, seed exchanges, ect.

Mr. Tom-Scott Gordon, I'm assuming by this time congrats are in order for getting your PDC Certificate! Please update us on your projects. They sound exciting!

Mr. Bradley Horn, I am very envious of your composted mulch! How did you discover it, and which two towns are you located near? Maybe if you're close, we could meet and you could tell me your secret!!

Mr. Drew, Hello (over four years later!), how is your permaculture holding up? What kind of cool progress have you been able to make on your Wye Mountain farm?  Nothing has been done on my property except a compost pile where I've been shoving my cut grass, shredded leaves, and kitchen scraps, hoping it gets a bit decomposed during this cold winter! Just figures since I haven't been on the property very long, but I'm sure with hard work progress will be made!

Hello.  We are brand new here, was just searching for a couple of things regarding permaculture in Arkansas and ran upon this site and this thread.  We live in Mayflower, AR, have just built our house and we've both read all the way through Gaia's Garden.  This is definitely what we want to do with our small little area, about 2 acres, some of it is quite the rocky hillside.  Husband is a beekeeper - but we lost both hives we started up here - so starting over on that, really saddened as we had done really well with the bees in Tennesee.  So we are realizing that we need help.  Two ideas we had today.  First - maybe find someone we could hire to come to our place and help us make a detailed plan about how to get started and move forward and come back periodically and see how we are doing, like a permaculture consultant ???.  We have done a basic plan but someone to help would be worth it.  Secondly - is there a place we could go to work for awhile to learn some of what we need to know to be able to move forward.  The whole thing seems pretty imposing for us - we are 60 and 62.  Just finished the house and it's worn us out.  Now the weed eating is killing us, but if we don't do it we have chiggers and snakes and whatnot.  Seems to me like everything we try to grow just gets overtaken by weeds.  But I hate flower beds.  Help!  Any ideas? Oh, we are on our second year for a keyhole garden, both failures.

Lem Win: Welcome to Permies!
Reading your post, what you might want to look for is a PDC: Permaculture Design Course. It's to teach you the basics you need to design your property, and if you do one in your area, you'll meet others near you. There is a forum here called permaculture design where they talk more about them, I honestly don't know much about them, never needed to look them up. You could start a thread in there asking for any in your area. Someone will know where you could find one, I'm sure.

Permies is full of nice, helpful people, and LOTS of interesting information. A lot of people  write up what they are fighting with, and others help figure out what may help them. Read a few other people's posts like that, and post a thread of your own, I bet you will get help!

Personally, my major challenge is grass, I bought 4 acres of pasture, that grew 5 foot deep in the rains this spring, oh my. I don't get around to weed eating, I'm on the brushcutter trying to find the ground! I wanted fertile soil when I bought, I got it, be careful what you wish for!!  :D

Thank you Pearl, for your response.  I took a look at the links you provided, leading me to more and more and more information.  We really just need someone to help us plan and simplify.  I will try posting on some of the other threads.  If anyone on this post knows of someone who does consulting in the Arkansas area or where there is a PDC in Arkansas, please let me know.

Hi Lem Win. Here is the link for the Facebook page of a couple guys out of NWA near fayetteville who do permaculture design. They call themselves Biodesic Strategies I have used them for some stuff on our property and I was pleased with them. https://www.facebook.com/Biodesic/

Thank you Tracy.  We will give them a try.  Appreciate your response.

Hi all!

I'm looking for others who are interested in forming a coop-style group to purchase land in Central Arkansas or somewhere along the river valley and establish a group owned and managed permaculture farm. I'm originally from NWA but have lived in Texas for many years. Hit me up if you might be interested.

Thanks,

Kirby Mason
kirbymason@yahoo.com

Could you tell more about where you want to do this in Arkansas. I live in North Central Arkansas and would like to help with this endeavor. Thank you.

Is anyone still following this forum?  It's been 3 years since I last posted, and am getting started on our third planting now.  I'm from Mena, AR and if you're in the area I would love to commiserate.

Hi everyone, permie here. Almost finish my online PDC course (WITHOUT certification)...with School of Permaculture by Nicholas Burtner in TX . I just want to learn the basic so I can start practicing permaculture concept for our 60 acres we bought in Magazine AR. I know I am far away from everyone but would be nice to have connection with perma folks in NWA area. We moved from Fort Worth and arrived in AR as of Nov. 2020. We are in our 50's and never too late to get started...lol. At this point, we are staying in a temporary living quarter out of a huge shop. We plan to built our house, greenhouse, etc...on these 60 acres....so yes, we will need help from the more experience folks. That's why I am on here reaching out to everyone. I think someone mentioned a facebook of permaculturist out of Fayetteville area. I may check it there. Please chime in and say "hi", would love to hear from ya.

Hi P&D,
I really admire what you are doing. That’s wonderful. I’m just learning about the Intentional Community and love love love it. I kinda of always lived & believed in the lifestyle & looking forward to Officially Living in an intentional community of sorts. In the meantime I would like to visit your location if it’s OK with you guys. I live in Little Rock but looking to move this summer.  Can we set up a time for me to visit & learn more about your process? Let me know. Thanks.
Stay Well,
Donna

Mandie Garrett wrote:
...our 60 acres we bought in Magazine AR.  

Hi Mandie, I can see Mt Magazine from here and I like the restaurant in the lodge..a bit pricey, but good. I'm north of Charleston about 10 miles.
How is your homestead coming along?

Hi Michael;
Sorry, I have not been on this site for a while, thinking that no one would respond...also have been busy with organizing from our move from TX. We live in the foot of Mt. Magazine so it's about an hour from us. It has been officially 5 months since we moved and so far the experience has been great...considering we don't have farm experience much less living in the country. I am guessing we were "mentally" ready and prepared for this kind of life.   We still have a lot of work to be done on this land. We have big goal/vision for these 6 acres of land but we will start small and learn along the way. We made some progress but not where I wanted us to be. Right now, we live in a temporary living quarters(13 by 40ft) inside a metal shop...while we plan to built our house. We got so excited in planning to built our house till we got couple of builder out and both of them said, the price of the wood went up really high due to the fluctuation of city people moving to country and everyone wants to built house with wood...well, at least that's what it seems like. My husband's dream is a cottage/cabin type of home. So, looks like our future home will have to wait for couple of years...at least hopefully, the price of woods will come down a bit. Not sure if new presidency has anything to do with it...well, maybe it does, because the turmoil in the city cause people to move out to the rural area. Either way, we still love it here and making the best of the situation. Since we are about an hour from big city like Fort Smith, Russellville, etc..., makes it hard to rent equipment.  We already bought 75HP Massy Ferguson and it's a beast. It is huge and very intimidating trying to learn how to operating this beast. I am petite, only 5'1", so very tough for me to operate. My husband mostly the one who uses it but he is working week days and only able to use it on weekend while it just sits there most of the time. Also, what we didn't know that now we know but it's too late...is we get lots of rain here. So far, it just rained and rained. The stat said we get about 40" rain per year and about 60 days of no rain...which be around August, I will believe it when I see it...LOL. So we can't use the tractor when it's raining because rain makes the ground soft and it digs into the soil, making a dip at least a foot thru out our land...so it just park in our poll barn most of the time. This is something we didn't know about and no one told us...oh well, like they said, experience is the best teacher and sometime it's the most expensive teacher...ha!
Well, I will end it here as I have more to tell but it's way too long and don't want to bore you with it..hehe. If you want, you can email me, that way I will get your message much faster as I don't get on here very often but if you want to continue on here, that's will be fine too. I would like to hear your life history of your place, what you do with the land, etc.... Everyone has stories to tell and I believe that's how we all learn...is when we all share our experiences. Thank you. Email: fitnesstohealth@gmail.com

Hello all,

Wife and I are new to permaculture but have always enjoyed "regular" gardening. We currently have just over 2 acres in Saline County and looking to replace a portion of our "yard" with a more permanent garden area along with a few chicken and possibly bees down the road. There's an abundance of advice and tips here so I'll hold off on questions but would like to be included in any future events/classes around the central AR area.
Thanks