Rockspire, located south of Eureka Springs, is “a living laboratory for sustainable lifestyles.” Dallas architects George Myers and Mike Johnson purchased the property 25years ago and have involved the community in discussions about how to build homes and communities more in harmony with the environment.
Through the years they have tested innovative ideas by constructing a small guest cabin, workshops and ancillary buildings, and the MobbyMac Carriage House, which is used for community meetings, an office space, and a guest apartment. They have installed solar panels and used water catchment systems on the roofs to harvest rainwater and are installing underground fiber for high-speed internet.
Now Myers and Johnson are proceeding to build their dream eco-homes—while building costs have skyrocketed and supply chain problems make it hard to know when or if you will be able to obtain certain building supplies—or how much they will cost. They have decided to adapt by manufacturing many of their own building components in a 4,000-square-foot workshop.
“The workshop addition is about half done and will be used to manufacture many of the items used in our full-time residential housing,” Myers said. “We will make our own building components – doors, cabinets, furniture, etc. – and not have to worry about getting them from China. We have already thinned trees at the homesites, and in the next month or so will get bulldozers going to excavate for foundations. In this first phase we have three houses going up.”
Currently the world is experiencing an acceleration in climate change disasters including more frequent floods, droughts, wildfires and temperature extremes. Myers said this past year or two the dangers of climate change have been put in laser focus. Carroll County had no rain in June and July, combined with abnormally hot temperatures. There was brief respite from drought in August, but then it got very dry again for most of September and October. The drought combined with high winds resulted in a National Weather Service wildfire danger alert recently.
The permanent house structures at Rockspire will be noncombustible; these houses will not burn to the ground.
“If a disaster comes through, we don’t want to start over and replace everything,” Myers said. “We will only need to replace what minor damage is caused in a storm or fire.”
Myers’s background is in designing surgery centers and hospitals. Operating rooms require very clean air, so he has experience in air quality requirements. “For my house, I’m putting in an experimental heating, ventilation and air conditioning system, partly motivated by the pandemic,” Myers said. “It is an idea I’ve had for years. It will be a high-quality geothermal system with 100 percent fresh air. In conventional buildings, if someone gets sick, everyone often gets sick. In this house, the system will be constantly cleansing and evacuating the air instead of recycling it. That works not just for Covid, but for the common cold, flu, or any air-borne diseases.”
Except for a pause during the worst of the pandemic, the Rockspire Forum is held once a month and is attended by 30 to 40 people. Myers said that is a way for people to be involved with Rockspire without living there. This most recent forum included a presentation by Scott Miskiel, who is putting together plans for the gardens.
As part of their goal to be net producers instead of net consumers, work has begun on innovative gardens. They plan to eventually produce more food than is needed by residents of Rockspire, with the surplus being sold or donated.
“The gardens are the next way people could get involved,” Myers said. “This recent forum was about getting more community input. We are starting with soil preparations now and implementing the planting next spring. Scott plans classes for people who want to come and learn.”
Plans call for using hügelkultur (building a garden bed from rotten logs and plant debris), and a type of agroforestry where for every fruit tree, you plant complementary trees and bushes called guilds that return to the soil whatever the fruit tree is using. One of the things they are also investigating is planting “sacrificial plants.” For example, if bugs or racoons really like a certain fruit or vegetable, some will be planted outside the fence to keep them out of the garden.
“That could be a creative way to control the pests,” Myers said.
This summer was very difficult for gardeners because of the heat and drought. Plants don’t pollinate or produce well in high temperatures. Rockspire plans to also grow some plants in shipping containers for a controlled environment. They are also planning a greenhouse.
“We don’t want to totally rely on Mother Nature,” Myers said. “We want some control, but we are starting with outdoor gardens. We will have garden fencing surrounded by a chicken moat, a double fenced area that makes it difficult for deer or anything else to get in. Chickens are kept between the two fences, and in the off season, the chickens roam the garden to do the weeding and fertilizing.”
They are also installing a 5,000-gallon cistern that will store spring water and rainwater to irrigate the gardens.
Miskiel said sustainable agricultural practices are one of his passions.
“I’m excited to be involved in a community that is working towards living sustainably,” he said. “The most important thing is developing good, healthy soil that has a lot of organic matter that acts as a sponge to retain more water. The first step is composting a lot of organic matter into the soil. We hope most of the water for the garden can be harvested from rain. We are certainly working towards having a garden that can be successful even with the heat and drought we have been experiencing.”
Miskiel said they will use permaculture techniques, which includes forest farming. In the woods, there are groundcover layers all the way up to the canopy of the trees.
“Things have their little niches,” he said. “If you get away from the standard garden and plant more like nature, you will have natural layers of shade that will help keep crops from being decimated by the hot sun. We are making some compost out of wood chips and organic chicken litter. And to establish good, healthy soil, I’m a big believer in cover crops. For example, you can plant buckwheat between the summer harvest and fall crops. In a month to six weeks, you have a good layer of organic matter to chop down and use as mulch.”
He also likes Austrian winter peas and hairy vetch, both of which provide natural nitrogen fertilizer for plants. And he is a fan of chickweed, a plant that can spread vigorously in cooler weather and is considered undesirable by some gardeners.
“When people realize how tasty and healthful it is, they wouldn’t consider it a weed, but a really persistent salad green,” Miskiel said. “If you look at the nutritional profile, it is as healthy or healthier than just about any kind of salad green we go to the store to purchase.”