Hello from the Shady five-eighty! Our family was born and raised around Western Oklahoma right smack-dab in the middle of cattle farming country. Every major track of land out here is either wheat or prairie grass on mile sections. We just recently settled into the small town of Butler, Custer County, on a 1/3rd acre lot. We have installed a kitchen garden, greenhouse for propagation, and a compost bin all in zone 1. Currently we are working on (3) 4ft x 120ft long growing beds to run as an alley crop between fruit and nut trees in zone 2. This will also allow us chickens, ducks, and a few turkey's to run on 70% of the property.
We're starting to get more and more neighbors coming over at night to learn about what we are doing here. Our small town has many gardeners, but they are ALL classically trained in mono-crop gardening. Our yields from the bio-intensive vegetable garden has surpassed everyone's mono-crop gardens. When we start explaining the reasons we do things in a certain way, the theories of companion planting, building beds on contour, or the permaculture prinicples. We get blank stares and a "hhmmmm..." As most of these old gardeners are as die-hard mono-crop/fertilizer as they come. They keep coming back to see if our garden has failed to the heat, wind, predators, etc. but we just keep growing an abundance.
Last week I was talking to my neighbor to the south about the rabbit that has been seen going in and out of my garden. He asked, "How ya gonna handle that rabbit eatin' on yer beans?" I simply told him, I grow enough for him and us both, we'll eat and store what he doesn't use. Straight tripped him out! lol
We are looking for people in Western Oklahoma to share our knowledge and seed-bank with. We are still busy on building infrastructure and design and hope to have the Nursery up and running for sales in the Spring. If you are interested in working together, just check us out at:
Shady Five-Eighty Nursery
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