I’ve never had a problem with boredom. There are so many things that I’m curious about, interested in, or want to do. And THAT can be a problem. Prioritizing is a must, and I often find that difficult.

This past weekend I deliberated whether to work in the garden or work on the insulation in my studio. We’re still in a heat wave, so the amount of time to work on anything outside is limited to sunrise to about 10 am. After that, it’s too hot. Once the sun drops behind the hill in the evenings it’s good for another hour or two. But not as good as the morning hours.

Prioritizing Questions

Since I wanted to do both and couldn’t decide which one to do, I had to come up with a question that would help answer the question.

Which one of the things I wanted to do had a shorter window of opportunity? Like, if I don’t do it today and for whatever reason can’t get to it in the next week or two, is it going to matter in the long run?

Well yes. One of these mattered more than the other when I asked that question.

Seeds can only be started during the right time of season. If the carrots and lettuce and all of the other things I need to plant for a fall crop don’t get sown, then it will be too late to do so in a few weeks. This will have more impact on my long-term goals than not getting my insulation done first.

Apart from that, weather sometimes forces priorities. I can work on my walls during the rain, but it’s not possible to do the garden work then. We have rain scheduled for Monday, but I plan to be out there taking advantage of the cooler morning even so.

Battling Nature

I’ve dabbled at gardening over the decades. Some were great, others not so much. The one that was on the bench across the gully was a great one – deep soil, not too many rocks, and lots of open space. A landslide in 2015 brought an end to that location. All of the qualities that made it excellent gardening ground are the same ones that brought it down in the end.

Now my garden is on a hill in a cut out spot behind the house. Originally it’s where my husband used to park his tractor. Now that the tractor stays down at the shop, it’s my garden space. And it’s basically in the middle of the woods. Except for the small space I’ve fenced in.

I guess you could call the garden an ‘inholding’. Except instead of a homestead in the middle of a national forest, it’s a garden on the edge of a wild Ozark forest, lol.

Problems and Solutions

The main trouble can be narrowed down to a few issues:

• the soil: no humus, lots of rocks, too much iron, clay bottom
• moisture: the beds dry out too quickly
• destructive critters: groundhogs, chipmunks, armadillos, insects, and SQUIRRELS love my garden

Those are the problems that have plagued my attempt at producing food in my terraced garden. But over the years of trial and error, I’ve stumbled on a few things that are helping.

• soil amendments: adding organic fertilizers and amendments are helping
• moisture retention techniques: using coconut coir cloth to line the beds is looking promising. It’s still an experiment. Also adding more soil mix (coconut coir and earthworm castings) is helping. But that’s a short term solution. I need to begin composting on a good-sized scale to add humus, which will help to retain moisture. The compost can also be a mulch I can use in addition to the straw and paper feed sacks.
• barriers: using a light remay type cloth helps keep the insects off of things that don’t need pollination, and it keeps the squirrels out so they’re not digging up everything. And reinforcing my perimeter fence has pretty much kept out the groundhog and the armadillo.

Food Security

You might wonder why I bother to keep trying when so much nature fights against my efforts. Honestly, prioritizing the garden today was difficult. I really wanted to work on my studio. And my studio isn’t fighting my efforts.

One reason is because it’s a challenge and I like challenges. Another is food security. If I grow the food we eat (or at least as much as possible), I know it should be fresh and free of harmful chemicals/contamination.

Also related to food security is the idea that food production shouldn’t cost as much as buying it. Right now it does, because I’m buying inputs. But I’m starting my own seeds saved from previous garden years and finding ways to create my compost. That will reduce the cost to only time spent on labor.

And what if there is a supply chain interruption? It’s fairly likely sooner or later with the current events happening now. A garden makes me feel more secure with food.

Most of all, it gives me great pleasure to eat something I’ve grown, gather herbs right outside the back door, and walk on my paths and see the thyme and other herbs creeping everywhere and smell the scent when I step on any, flowers blooming, my rocks all stacked and working together. The garden as a whole is just another creative outlet for me while also something that will eventually be utilitarian as well. I wouldn’t have to battle nature so much if I’d just stick to growing wildflowers and culinary or medicinal herbs, though. It’s food that’s difficult.

Anyway, that’s why I chose the garden this past weekend. <Sigh> If only I could clone myself a few times 🙂

I did get into the studio on Monday

Today was raining, as expected. So I did get into the studio and hung the last of the side and back wall insulation batts. I still have the odds and end shaped piecework to do on the tops of the side walls. And the front wall is nothing but odds and end shaped spaces. I may need to do the ceiling insulation before I can do the tops of the side walls, though. We’ll see. I’m happy with today’s progress.

And I’m happy that I got work done on both my garden AND my studio this week.

Now, Another Little Garden Project

I’m just coming back in from cutting some willow branches. There’s a small retaining wall I want to make behind the newly rooted and transplanted little Monarda bradburiana. I want the wall so I can fit something else on the level above it against ‘the wall’. Little by little I’m filling in all of the spaces in my garden. But there’s a lifetime of work left to that. I’ll make a video and blog post about this little project as soon as I can.

.
Author/Artist Info
________________________________
In the summer of 2018 I began making watercolor paints from the rocks, clay, and other resources of our land here in the Ozarks. In 2023 I began experimenting with the same pigments in oils. I call them Wild Ozark Paleo Paints, because they’re made in a way very close to the same way paints were made when man (or woman) first put a hand-print on the wall of a cave. I use very small amounts of outsourced pigment for blue, white, and sometimes yellow to offer a greater range of hues built upon the earthy local pigments. My specialty is painting nature, specifically the nature that surrounds me here in the remote hills of northwest Arkansas.

Click here to join my mailing list.

Madison Woods
@wildozark (Instagram, Twitter, Threads and FB)
madison@wildozark.com

Want to join me for workshops or see my art?

Coming soon! I have a new Studio in the Works 🙂
The building is here and I’m finishing out the interior. I hope to begin offering classes/workshops by the end of September 2026 and host Open Studio days regularly right here at Wild Ozark, where the possibilities for nature experiences (including nature art) run rampant.

The best way to stay informed is to sign up for my newsletter and check off the box ‘Studio News’ (or whatever is closest to that description). I’m updating there as I meet the goalposts and will announce anything planned as soon as I get firm dates.