We are in the process of building a new home for our family, and I’m dreaming of a garden at our new place. With so much to do when you build, I’m afraid we won’t have time for a garden this year, and I just can’t imagine life without a garden. So, I’ve been reading up on no-work gardening and came across the Ruth Stout gardening method. WOW! I love it!
What an amazing woman! I love her free spirit and fun personality. I just watched a video interview she had late in her life, and couldn’t help but laugh out loud.
She was “planting potatoes” by throwing them on the ground and then covering them with straw. I think even I can do that while building a new home 😉
Here’s that Ruth Stout garden video if you’d like to watch it (not the best quality, but you’ll get what she’s doing): it’s about 10 minutes and so worth watching!
Table of Contents
What Is The Ruth Stout Gardening Method?
Ruth’s method of gardening might seem crazy to some, but I’ve watched enough videos of people using her methods, and read enough stories, that I believe it with all my heart.
I am planning to use this exact method for my 2018 garden, so even though we’ll be busy building a new home, we can still enjoy fresh herbs and veggies from our garden.
Ruth Stout gardening without work
No matter what you call Ruth’s method of gardening, be it no work gardening, mulch gardening, or even lazy gardening, once you try it, you may never go back to gardening the old way. And why would you? It’s so much more fun to get all the benefits of gardening and none of the hard work 😛
Here’s what her method entails: no plowing, cultivating, weeding, watering, or spraying. And no cultivating cover crops. Just sow your seeds on top of the soil, wiggle your hand on top of them to cover the seeds a bit, and that’s all. Or, throw potatoes on the ground and cover them up with spoiled hay.
The hay decomposes and enriches the soil, so this gardening method will give you better and better yields as the years go by. She suggests adding a layer of hay that’s at least 8″ tall (the more the better)
She only used one fertilizer: cottonseed meal. It adds a bit of nitrogen to the soil and keeps is healthy.
Ruth Stout Books
If you want to learn more about Ruth’s way of gardening (and living), there are a few must-have books. Take a peek below. I just got a couple of them myself. This woman is fascinating!
The Ruth Stout No-Work Garden Book: Secrets of the Famous Year-Round Mulch MethodHow to Have a Green Thumb Without an Aching Back: A New Method of Mulch Gardening
It’s a Woman’s World: A Bouyant Guide to Easier, More Enjoyable Living (Ruth Stout Book 4)
Gardening Without Work: For the Aging, the Busy, and the Indolent
The Ruth Stout No-Work Garden Book
If You Would Be Happy: Cultivate Your Life Like a Garden (Ruth Stout Classics)
Company Coming: Six Decades of Hospitality (Ruth Stout Classics)
Greenwoman Volume 5: Ruth Stout
The Whole Ruth: A Biography of Ruth Stout
Proof that the Ruth Stout gardening method works
I love this method of gardening and it almost seems too good to be true, so I decided to go to YouTube and see if anyone had any proof from their own garden.
I found lots and lots of videos. I’m just including one here, but you can go check and see for yourself. Now I can’t wait for spring to get started! Oh, here are 7 of the easiest vegetables to plant this spring 😉
So You Want To Raise Chickens? What You Need To Know Before You Get Chickens
Wednesday 10th of March 2021
[…] The short answer to that is both. Chickens can provide a dormant garden with a much-needed displacement of the soil, especially for those folks focused on Back to Eden, Lasagna, or any sort of no-till gardening. […]
The 10 Most Ordered Amazon Gardening Products in 2020
Monday 30th of March 2020
[…] Ruth Stout’s gardening method is very popular. This book explains her gardening without work method. […]
Joan Terrell
Friday 20th of September 2019
Oh my goodness, I am just learning about Ruth Stout and her method. I so appreciate your providing this info and the videos. A whole new world is opening.
Aaron Muertter
Tuesday 11th of June 2019
Straw often is contaminated with herbicides. So is some hay
ILoveGardening
Sunday 16th of June 2019
Buy it from local farmers you know ;)
Norma Hoblit
Wednesday 15th of May 2019
Is she using hay or straw? Hay has grass seeds in it that will germinate. Straw does not.