After spending our summer building labor-intensive hugelkultur mounds, we decided to try our hands at a MUCH simpler form of permaculture, using the Ruth Stout Method: Simply growing our food in hay!
For those interested, here's an FAQ video (about the Ruth Stout method) that we posted last year. It should hopefully help to answer any questions you might have: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-mJ8ueya4HtI.html
Your final thought also shows why we don't want to lose our older generations to corona virus-- people of all ages are wise and creative and have things to teach us.
Heart disease and stroke are not contagious. Yes, we should have better preventative medicine to cut back on strokes and heart disease (guess which party cuts the budget for those programs?) but with a contagious disease like COVID19 we have a hope of stopping it from spreading. I don't understand why people say that since people die from other causes (car crashes, heart attacks) we shouldn't do anything about a contagious disease.
@@oldauntzibby4395 Because you can hold it off, but the end result is going to be the same. Flatten the curve to save those lives that need hospital beds for things like heart attacks and car crashes etc. But the end result will be the same, if you are going to die of Covid you are going to die from it. You cannot stop it, you may extend some lives a few years but social distancing, but it will not change the long term outcome. You need to learn to deal with death rather then try and hide from it. It should be noted nearly 90% of all people who die, had less than 5 years to go.
@@matthewfarrell317 The scenario you describe assumes we do nothing but practice social distancing and wait. In that case yes, the majority of the population will eventually be infected. But with enough testing you can drop the deaths down to almost nothing until vaccines and/or treatments are developed. Widespread testing is the key, followed by rigorous contact tracing and quarantining of confirmed or even suspected cases. Medical data along with cell phone use data and satellite data can identify clusters of infection, and by using all these methods the infection can be stopped in its tracks. But it all starts with enough testing. Right now in the US our per capita testing is miniscule, so we're essentially flying blind. We have absolutely no idea how many people are infected, particularly since the majority are asymptomatic. Statistically speaking we're testing almost no one. In the meantime people are becoming increasingly lax about social distancing, and many states are "opening up" at exactly the worst time. We're going to pay a price for that, because while hot spots like New York have flattened the curve and are trending down, the rest of the country is on a steady rise which will only get worse as people go back to working, traveling and socializing. The only way to stop that is by adopting a massive war-time effort of increased testing followed by aggressive pursuit of all identified cases of infection or primary exposure.
@@ericpierce3660 this is absolutely unrealistic. To "drop deaths to almost nothing" you would need to absolutely isolate people from each other, basically imprison them and even that would not really stop it. And then we have the little fact that lockdown causes insane economical damage that would kill a lot more people that coronavirus (which is basically as dangerous as influenza, but a bit more fast spreading), because people without money can not afford homes, food or medicine. Most leading epidemologists in the world say the same thing, btw. All you do is spread panic and panic kills a lot more people than disasters do, most of the times. You do that because you are uneducated and you don't know what the usual dangers are, like regular yearly deaths from influenza pandemic (numbered in millions) or even simple statistics, because the though that death from coronavirus in elderly may not be much different than expected deaths among them seems to completely escape you. Old people tend to die more often than young people, surprising as it sounds. Idiot politicians rouined the economy because they wanted to earn brownie point with idiotic electorate, like you, because some mild infection became hyped on facebook and you all turned to panic striken sheep. This is a fucking joke.
Whem I started gardening almost 50 years ago I used this method and was able to grow corn, beans, cukes, radish, carrots, cantaloupe, tomatoes, eggplant, without any experience. I did read botany and gardening books and magazines. I learned a lot from Organic Gardening and Farming. One very interesting book which I would like to recommend is Plowman's Folly, on the subject of no-till farming and land regeneration. Yes, the land can heal!
A lot of knowledge passed to you by your father shame it doesn't happen now the kids aren't interested like cooking skills and sowing and knitting lol I'm a 57 year old man and my nan tought me to knit and to bake how to skin rabbits kill chickens and gut fish and how to boil pigs trotters for my grandfather if i tried showing my kids that the would have never eaten again lol
@@makwiilliams2894 Your skills may come in very handy in the next 5 years. Things are changing and some of the older skills are going to become necessary again for many of us. Growing our own veg is high up on the list. Blessings.
Who ever implied that it couldn't? Who are the people contesting BASIC biology? No one has ever needed to do or be anything for plants to cover crop themselves..
@@makwiilliams2894 It's simply a matter of how they are raised. If kids are raised with such knowledge, they will love and appreciate it. If they aren't, they won't. Kids today, are raised on fast food, video games and social media. Parents don't actually parent...
I love all the RU-vidrs who share their passion... But you guys deserve special recognition for making clear, concise, and easy to follow informational videos. Not too long and rambling, but just enough of what we need to know. Two thumbs up! Thanks so much!
Just a tip. If you have decent leaf mold/compost and don't want to wait, you can follow Geoff Lawton's example of the instant garden by first laying down a layer of cardboard to attract earthworms quickest, separating pockets in the hay rows diamond patterned for great space efficiency and plugging said compost into these pockets with direct seeding or starts. As you water the whole bed, it will break down quickly and a mycelial network will develop between the pockets unifying the whole bed and can be mulched easily all season long with leaves, grass whatever you have to continue buliding the soil height. I have a raised bed that I added hugel to the bottom and use leaves exclusively and get great results!!
"it's never too late" gave me hope while working at a hardware store as a cashier (dead end and, as anytime who's worked retail knows, unpleasant). When an opportunity arrived, I was ready to go back to school. Hope is vitally important. Now, to verify that I've found my passion.
I'll be 68 Sunday June 26, even though I've taken care of plants throughout my life ''circumstances'' have me looking at gardening in a whole different light. The less digging is a great way to start. TY for the video
Probably a good idea to compost the first batch of hay first, for about 5 to 6 months, turning it every two weeks, then put that layer down, and new hay over the top of it. That way you’ll have much faster results. Some people grow potatoes with the Ruth Stout method, but I have serious doubts that a potato growing underneath hay, would be as nutritious as potatoes grown directly in the dirt. Somebody ought to do a test on that. Have the nutrient profile of each potato tested.
Kelstr - Check out the “Back To Eden” (BTE) gardening method, also. There’s a website and a video about the method. You have to be sure to plant your seed down in the dirt though, not in the wood chips, or in this case, the hay. The hay would be best for potatoes, though. Use the wood chips for other crops.
I purchased Ruth's book in the mid 70's from Organic Gardening, Rodale Press. I followed her method religiously. Within a couple of years, I had a Giant Worm Bed that would practically grow the vegetables by showing the package to the soil. I still have Her book in my organic gardening library.
I planted pumpkins 4 years ago in a place where the cows had been fed hay for 30 years. It i had a huge crop that year. Next year I put in a typical garden of tomatoes peas okra eggplant potatoes and corn etc. It was wild. What a garden! After 3 years of typical tilling plowing and it has gone crap. Soil is like a brick. I'm covering it with hay this fall and retiring the tiller.
WOW....GREAT video!! :) Ruth is an inspiration!! :) I just started my first garden last year...age 51...and I have fallen IN LOVE with growing FOOD! :) Permaculture should be taught when kids a very, very young so they can carry it through their entire life. Our kids spend time learning about CRAP they will never, ever use in their lives, but THIS information is INVALUABLE!! :) THANK YOU for sharing, encouraging, and inspiring!! God bless! :) xo PS - bought a scythe this year (One Scythe Revolution) and LOVE IT...I let my grass grow longer, scythe it, and then use it as hay...great workout early in the morning, and FREE hay! :)
WOW!!! Idk if y’all Christians or not but I have to say, God surely does bring things and information when the time is right. The background on Ruth was for me. I’m 41 years and had brain tumor surgery 6 months ago. I’m starting my journey with homesteading. Thank you for sharing.
Hello from TN! I love gardening! I grow flowers right in among my vegetables! Nasturtiums, sunflowers, zinnia just all sorts of things! Borage for my Honeybees, well really, for ALL the bees! GOD bless
I am a believer. I pray in Jesus name for your complete healing. I am also asking God for a harvest so big for you that you will be able to bless others.
I'm a muslim and I agree with you every thing is planned for by the lord and there's always a reason for everything I pray for you to be in good health
Best explanation of the Ruth Stout method I've seen, aside from actually reading her books. Thank you for putting the effort into being accurate. I've seen so many videos by people who criticize her method, who don't actually follow it, that end up discouraging people from trying it.
I love Ruth Stout, and I have all of her books too, even a VHS of her. However, one thing that many forget, is to consider where you live, and your own personal land and weather conditions. In the north, where she lived, is not like in the south, of course, and one hay, is not ALL hay. They do indeed grow differently. I have read so many comments about using hay, I promise you, it's in the thousands, and most have their own conditions when using ANY method in a garden. In the north, most seeds die when it freezes, in the south, many don't. The soil where I live is different, than the soil in other places. The point is, NONE of us are going to experience the same thing. I use the Ruth Stout method, it works great for me, However I also have incorporated the "Back to Eden" for things too. I get little seed growth in my hay, but when you do, you can always just turn the new growth over on top of the bed, and it dies. Or simply add a little more hay, and it dies. When the plants grow, that new hay seed will die, because of a lack of sun, soil to attach to, and it's fragile state. This is just an example of what I do, you can find out your own conditions and go from there. I wanted covered walkways, so they go in this fall using wood chips. It's a "learn as you go" system, no matter where you live. No one is going to have the same results, Your soil and conditions will dictate what you need to do. It's all about TRYING things to give us a great gardening system. This video can help anyone, simply by watching the results, figuring out what works, and what you need to change. It's always a work in progress when it comes to gardening. I had a pile of hay about 6 feet tall, and let it decompose for a while, and almost NO seed grew in it, but I have seen hay that the seeds grew super huge, and super fast too. If that were me, that new grass would be lifted from the pile and saved as free new hay! Take advantage of the sprouting seeds!!! We all work different, and have different results, but one thing is clear, if it works, woo hooo, if not, you still learn what works for your area, and can pass it on, if not, you can share it too. Lets face it, Apple trees grow best in the north, and you couldn't get an Apple tree to do a thing in parts of the south. So, my conclusion is, NO one method is EVER going to do the same thing in one place as it does in another. But I sure do "Love The Ride" Looking forward to seeing what happens! Bless, Sheila
You are SOOOO wrong about apples in the south. I'm currently finishing the planting of my orchard of apple varieties that all originated in Arkansas. In the late 1800's and early 1900's Arkansas was a major exporter of apples.
Awhh!!!! How wonderful. I"m sure I can get the books, though would LOVE to see the videos. Maybe you could have someone transfer them to disk and upload to a vidoe channel. That's a treasure she would want to be shared!. Thank you for your comment. I got excited about the videos of her and so now will read the rest. It sounds like you are a wealth of info too. I'm planning on buying land in the Ozarks. I'm disabled with neruo-musclar disability. I'll have to hire some things, use a machine for tilling, but this here really excited me. I can pick and throw hay! Nothing too strenous very long as it wipes me out badly. I also am considering building a earth house or self-sustainging. One shows a greenhouse along one wall, that whole wall is a windown, then the outside window parallelling. I'm wondering how that affects what I would plant in there. The inside of the earthouse maintains a temp between 50-55 year round requiring very little if any heating and cooling. The greenhouse is colder and warmer matching with the side of temp. It breaks the barrier from outside to inside as if the outside temp is differnt because of slowing and breaking it with greenhouse. They don't call it a greenhouse per se' but it's used for that. All I've seen are decorative plants there, not veggies. I also saw a method growing salad greens (fast-growing) in the winter where they just use the bottom of a clear tupperware-like storage container for a mini-grenhouse. A box with holes for drainage or the soil bag with holes poked on what bcomes the bottom of the bag of soil fits the container bottom which becomes the top lid. It keeps temperature milder inside. In summer, if too much humidity, open to crack it. I dabbled in gardening when younger, am 55, but now am new getting back to what i've been missing and intending to be self-sufficient off the land. I'm extra-excited that i am finding these great resources with all the piecces seemingly falling into place as if I'm being led, not determining. I want a big piece of land, am starting from broke after not having worked in a long time due to disability. I prayed for the means to restore and landed an incredible sales job over the phone. God can work with anything to answer prayers - even me! Thanks for sharing your knowledge. It appears with the Hay discussion that this is finishing and essential info to this video and discovery of this method. I"ll have to figure it all out according to climate and type of hay.
Resource everything you can on Helen & Scott Nearing, they have been credited with starting the back to the land movement, very interesting people and great writers.
I used this method with one addition, horse manure. I had a racehorse stable a few miles from my house and would leave my trailer there for them to fill, took about a week. I ran the manure through a tumbler for about 7 days then added this to my garden in layers with the alfalfa hay. Man did that garden grow the best tomatoes ever 👍, along with green beans, carrots, beets, corn, and peas.
My great grandmother taught me this hay method years ago and said her family had done it for generations. My great grandmother was full blood Choctaw and born in 1921
Me and my wife have just bought 30 acres about 7 months ago . Just about ready to start our 1st garden . Will definitely try this next year ! ( Wish I had found this in the fall , lol ) Thanks for the great info !
I read her book right now. I'm inspired. I couldn't get hay and I used instead straw. I mulched my potato beds. I harvested them right now and they look amazing! Much cleaner and the peel is thin and beautiful. I also mulched my bush beans with an exciting result, too! I had my 3. potato harvest this year. The last was a test because it I planted them in the 1. week of September, this was even for Portugal late but it worked. I will try this next year with the sweet potatos, too!
That garden looks so neat and tidy - great to see young folks so interested in gardening. Wonderful to see Ruth bought back up - she was a feisty woman. Back when younger and I could get on my knees - I used this method sorta - I started growing in late 60s - early 70s with roses. But I had horses and we could get lots of straw bales (didn’t use grass hay (after initial time) due to seed heads unless I could get boot stage grown that happened to get rained on). But did use alfalfa - never any seed heads due to when our guy cut. But his straw that got rained on and was sold to DOT - could get cheap. It all started because we got some hay from a new guy that baled with too much moisture and it molded so we put it in stack in the garden figuring to use for mulch and compost next yr . Well - the tarp blew off during snow storm and then it rained for several weeks and we were too busy to notice hay was almost completely uncovered. Well we just left it and come spring discovered it was pretty well broken down so we just pulled the strings (it was stacked 3 bales high) and left it. That fall we spread it out, added some alfalfa and wheat straw (pulled apart in flakes but no fluffing and added a couple loads of horse manure from cleaning the paddocks (no wood chips, hay or weed seeds) on top. Next spring we had the best garden ever and had about a foot + of nice fluffy “soil”. After that we just added each fall more layers - never tilled. Sometimes in summer our hay guy would get some alfalfa that got rained on he would give us free if we would pick up from field and we would just stack it 2-3 deep) water it down and cover it - by fall it was well on it’s way and we just spread on the garden after final harvest. No big amount of fertilizer needed, just limestone in fall and epsom salts once plants were up and I did use seaweed/fish emulsion once a month on heavy feeders like tomatoes, peppers. After that, whenever we skipped a yr of gardening, I would do green manure by sowing buckwheat, let it bloom and then cut it down - repeat several times and sow clover in fall - the clover added nitrogen and it kept plants cool as a living mulch. We sorta chopped it when planting plants but it stayed around. The buckwheat added the needed green component to the straw along with the alfalfa hay. The worms loved it. Never again had to deal with hardpan soil again. Now I do raised beds use same principals for making bagged potting soil or even purchased by truckload top soil into fluffy good stuff. Only difference is I now add greensand and rockpowders because of using mostly potting soil which is actually soil less. Would have used it all those years ago but didn’t know about it. I also have acces to by the truck load leaf compost and also mushroom compost. I’m getting ready to do new raised beds and will have the top soil guy mix his mushroom compost into it and add a load of the leaf mulch to it for me (mile apart and a 2 miles from me). He will also add rock dust and deliver. His top soil and mushroom have been ph adjusted after testing. I will add the greensand and mix in 1/3 volume of bagged potting soil or coir and I will be set for yrs and years. The best thing is I don’t have to bend as much anymore - knees and back don’t care for it. I just add 2 bales of alfalfa (beds are 4’x8’ - 2’ deep- will eventually have another layer of cedar boards and be 3’) each yr in late sumer or fall. Empty spots in summer get buckwheat and clover. Sometimes in early spring Feb/early March will sow peas (nitrogen fixer) to have some fresh to eat but just chop into soil come May 1 before I get ready to plant regular stuff Mother’s day weekend. Sometimes I plant annual rye and clover if I don’t get any hay that year. I have friends I can get manure but it has caused too many weeds and getting it is a hassle. I do just as well without it and sometimes I will get a few bags of Black Gold bagged cow or chicken manure. I don’t use anything that has sewage or municipal sludge in it. I believe that will come back to haunt us in later yrs - studies show that some areas in processing tanks don't get high enough temps to kill pathogens -it was a way to allow towns a way to get rid of human waste. There have been cases of vegetable farms that e-coli was an issue in produce traced back to watering with municipal waste in irrigation system or put on field. It is like high fructose corn syrup - a way to solve a left over from corn industry that is now causing health issues. I was taught you don’t garden with dog, cat or human poop and never will. I actually wonder about cow manure - fed too much corn which for cows increases their e-coli counts at least according to vet I know who works on cows due to getting sick. Just hope the bagged is processed enough that it won’t be an issue. I have used lots of goat and rabbit manure before but don’t have a source right now. It worked great and didn’t seem to be a burn issue like chicken manure which stinks bad and is very hot. Goat and sheep is super easy to work with too. The rabbit is sort of the same but because they were caged and the grower let it pile up with urine under the cages, it was little smellier and caked. Never go to a commercial chicken house, you will be sorry! Horse is okay if you compost it for 6 months or so and cow is a mess - forget unless it is composted already. I was able to get some good from a dairy who pushed (with tractor) all the alfalfa hay left over, manure, urine, sawdust outside into a pile and let it sit for 6 months - he moved it around to let oxygen in to break down well so by the time I got a truck load, it was good stuff. Not much nitrogen because rains wash through it and it all runs off into field but still great compost. .
I still need to water as I'm on sand at the beach so it's super dry but this is a wonderful way to build up your soil. I made a huglekuture garden by accident. Had never heard the name but I decided to tidy up my backyard and threw in all my branches, dead plants and grass into my raised garden. Perfect. It's also where I throw my foodscraps.
Thank You!!! I just heard the name Ruth Stout a couple of days ago but nothing really about who she is/was - just that she had a method of growing. This video has answered my questions. Super informative and enjoyable to watch. As a side note - I'm in my 70s and a super new gardener.
This video alone got me to subscribe, thank you, it's brought back so many enjoyable memories. I bought a Ruth Stout book back in '76, found it a completely revolutionary approach to gardening. She was Organic before it was a popular buzzword. I fell in love with my garden. The book had a section called companion planting. Marigolds and Nasturtiums planted here and there because insects preferred them to her veggies. Tomatoes love Basil, Horehound planted around the outside edge helped to deter mice, but not too close, veggies don't like it either. That book was a wealth of information, one I'd let people take notes from but never borrow. (Borrowed books get lost somehow.)
it's so crazy to me, a few years back I volunteered at a farm and this guy was so jaded, angry all the time, he seemed to hate "permaculture guys" like he referred to them LOL he would have all these "procedures" and things he would do to the soil before planting, it felt so unnatural working there, I knew something was going against my instincts... some people just work hard for the sake of it, no real benefit from it
I found my passion - gardening - 3 years ago when I was 52. The first year I made raised beds from compost and topsoil and grew some fine sweet corn, tomatoes, zucchini, arugula and okra and grew some spinach and kale in them in the winter. Last year I read Ruth Stout's book on Lazy gardening. I decided to give it a try. I covered my raised beds in a mix of hay and rabbit droppings (local free resources. My neighbour keeps rabbits) My escarole lettuce did great in the cooler months and my arugula too. My tomatoes are doing ok, something ate my zucchini while it was still baby plants, I tried cucumbers for the first time and something ate them down to nothing too. My peppers are growing, but very slowly. The sunflowers look great, as do the zinnias and the melons. I've lost calendula and alfalfa, but maybe that was from not watering at all and relying on our very sporadic rain. (40mm per YEAR) I haven't given up though. I'm learning that South Spain gardening Ruth Stout style maybe is a little different from gardening somewhere a little less extreme. I will stick with Ruth's method. If she can do it, so can I!
Thank you! In less than 8 minutes, you've given out more information on the " Ruth Stout method " I've seen series that hasn't come close. You told how, when and why. Along with information on the inverter. Subscribing..lol, forgot I already had subscribed. Peace
Great info i love a good back story. I am familiar with the ruth stout method, and have converted almost my entire garden over to a hybrid of this and a chop n drop method. I add a new bed every year and am almost to the final garden layout i intended. One thing i might offer from an experience standpoint and doing this for about 6 years. In your first fall if you till the ground and then lay hay (i used a mix of hay and leaves as i have an abundance of leaves use what you got right) the next spring the hay is much more incorporated into the native soil and the grass is composted as well. Then in about late january early february as soon as the snow melts add another layer of hay/leaves even if it might snow again. I think this new layer really warms the beds up and gets the soil life moving earlier and goes a long way to making nice loamy soil in 1 winter. After that its just maintenance layers fall and spring. I hope this helps anyone seeing this vid for the first time taking a few extra steps goes a long way. Great info guys I've had fun watching all the back vids I regret not finding this channel sooner.
We raise angus cattle and have for decades. Never have heard of this method until now and with everything going on with the UK, we are really buckling down on homesteading. Already preppers. I'm super excited to try this method since we have literally tons of hay. Thanks and subbed!
Best of luck Matt! I really hope this method works for you! Here is a video we posted more recently, that answers all of our most frequently asked questions about this method: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-mJ8ueya4HtI.html And here is a playlist of other videos about it, in case that's helpful: ru-vid.com/group/PLR0R_IpM9UrbLrZnIy6JEUzV9iHf4sDVc
There are a few methods of gardening which all seem very similar to me. Back to Eden, Deep Mulch, Ruth Stout - different names, same idea. Cover the ground in a thick layer of mulch (wood chips, hay, straw, grass cuttings, fall leaves) and create a beautiful soil situation for your garden. My garden is only 20ft x 40 ft, but I've covered half of it with a thick layer of wood chips, and half of it with mulched up fall leaves from our own yard. Will be fun to see which side grows better :)
Kerith Gaines Fall leaves or woodchips are great, but they don't contain nitrogen. At one point you have to add either grass clippings (dried to avoid composting) or hay or something containing nitrogen otherwise you could have some bad surprises...
I read Ruth Stouts articles in the Mother Earth News in the 70s. It sounded like a good plan but as a kid I didn't have access to hay to do it. plus our garden grew great with the sheep manure that we tilled in every year. I did straw bales one year that composted down into the soil very quickly. looking forward to seeing your results
Thank you for all the work you put into this video! The backstory and animations were really interesting and seeing it put into practice was really helpful. Just one teeny tiny correction: when Ruth Stout said "More," she wasn't being Stoic; she was being Laconic. (One of the most famous examples of Laconic speech is when Philip of Macedon sent a message to Sparta saying “Submit without further delay, for if I bring my army into your land, I will destroy your farms, slay your people, and raze your city.” The Spartans sent back a single word in reply: "If.")
This is, by far, the best correction we've ever received. Thank you! :)
7 лет назад
Thanks for the well-structured video! The comments are also interesting. Ruth Stout original soil was mineral-rich. Starting over depleted soil I would recommend putting first a layer of fresh manure to "wake up" the soil life, and some minerals ( bone meal, etc.). You can thus speed up the process, saving ayear´s time. She also occasionally used other minerals in small quantities. But it is wonderful: just spread out the hay, move it back, and plant. She doesn´t use beds nor straight lines. A fun way to plant! I wonder about slugs?
Thank you for such an inspirational message at the end. I'm 44 and I didn't discover gardening until I was in my late 30's. At that time I had 4 young children and it limited the time I could spend in the garden. As my kids get older, I have more time and this coming season I am so excited to get in the garden and try all these new techniques I'm learning about. Love the channel! And now I'm reading her book: How to Have a Green Thumb Without an Aching Back and I feel like she is a kindred spirit. I can relate to her on so many levels. I just love following these little paths of interest that lead to things like this book. I am enjoying it immensely!
I have for many years crawled around in my garden plant my veggies each year and as time has moved on I find it too difficult to do any more until my son gave me this video to watch. He could see how much it was affecting me not being able to get out and garden and now, thanks to Ruth and your video I know what to do with the left o we hay. My son has started the process for me and raised the beds so I no longer have to crawl around. Thanks for sharing 🤗
Totally inspiring! I am about to turn 51 and am a brand-new gardener! I had been feeling like, "I'm too old to start this" until your inspirational ending : "It's never too late!". And what an incredible example Mrs. Stout is! I will be doing a deep dive into her methods, all thanks to your videos!
We started working on our lot in 2019 and started with a method similar to this one: cardboard + hay, without knowing about Ruth Stout. It proved deceptive on our clay rich soil. After a few months, cardboard was not fully decomposed, the soil was hard with lots of grass roots and hay had not brought enough organic matter, which stayed at the top, not mixing with the original soil. This method probably works: but it needs years to get started, at least on our soil. After this first experiment, we switched to a more labor intensive method: get rid of the top grass, work the soil with a broadfork (in French: grelinette) to unpack it, bring in compost to add organic matter and get a better soil structure, then mulch it. It takes more time and work, but gives better results. I am also testing a method used by a guy called Philippe Forrer, who was inspired by Ruth Stout. But Philippe has a more extreme approach using hugelkultur raised beds with lots and lots (and lots) of mulch on it. A kind of Ruth Stout method on steroids. After 15 years of doing it, his garden is a bit messy, but extremely fertile. Potatoes grow there without being planted! Check this video (English subtitles are available). ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-0jk0h1laL-0.html We are currently testing this on only one raised bed as I cannot find enough mulch yet.
I love you guys ! I have combined Raised bed with Hugelkulture inside as the base and Ruth Stout on top. The potential is indefinite. Thank you for all your inspiration and clean , clear illustration and hands on demo that is easy to follow. Blessed to know people like you 2 still exist. Thank you for everything. I try to leave a little garden at every place I move to.
Good vid. Enjoy your enthusiasm! For me, the most telling part of your vid was the closing narrative about you can try something new at any age. Wise words indeed.
What an inspiring woman. You two are absolutely amazing and completely professional in your ability to produce a quality informative video that motivates and inspires someone like me, to get out there and just do. Don’t think, just do. Good on the both of you and best wishes on your endeavors.
I appreciate how you honored Ruth Stout in your video. It was a great mix of a guy and a girl and footage of Stout. Am also trying this approach for this next season. Was out building three beds in December. Ruth also advocated anytime is a good time.
Thank you so much for sharing the history of Ruth Stout. I especially like the added part of the age/time of life she was when she began and the inspirational challenge you ended with in the video. I just turned 50 and had a hard time wrapping my brain around it! The year leading up to this had my mind processing life gone past and figuring out where I want to changes things in my life. You really begin to grasp that time passes quickly. Well, the pandemic started pretty much the year off and added a lot of changes before my birthday in Nov. We are buying a house and will have half an acre, hardly enough land to completely turn into a full working homestead, but plenty of room to begin gardening, food preservation and long term prepping. I’ve now spent hours binging gardening and I love it! There is so much to be amazed in the dynamics of growing our own food. Thank you so much for sharing the education in gardening and, as I said earlier I really loved the inspirational message, that it’s never too late to find something to learn and grow into a passion! Keep up the great videos 🤠👍
for people with low physical space on the land, consider checking out the concept of frontyard farming... there's a whole movement of people farming on other people's "borrowed" frontyards or even backyards, abandoned plots, etc. I just don't do it around here because I live in an area where people don't really respect private property (even flower pots are stolen if you can believe it) Otherwise I would
I remember reading about Ruth Stout back in the sixties. One interesting aside: her brother was Rex Stout who was the author of my favorite detective series of all time starring Nero Wolfe and Archie Goodwin.
I've wondered if Rex was Ruth's husband. I started reading Ruth's books in the 70's but never had any luck with the garden. It really takes about 3 years to get a Ruth Stout garden going good. Just about the time I'd get it going, I would end up moving! 😒
And here I am exhausted at 41! Hahaha we are buying our first house in January so we won't be able to start anything until the spring but I want to give this method a try! Thanks for sharing! Avidly watching from NB!
Neta McKinney You won’t be sorry. Growing delicious, nutritious stuff does not need to be difficult. Guys in particular seem to need to make it much harder than it is. Imho.
OMG. I dream of having a nice farm like that where I could live with my family and live a self sustainable lifestyle while still managing my business. I hope I will buy a farmhouse soon.
l also used the Ruth Stout method when I rented property--- worked just great ! Bought the book, 'THE RUTH STOUT NO-WORK GARDEN'--- lots of great info therein, plus info on companion planting.
Thanks for introducing me to Ruth Stout! She seemed like a FIERY brave kind of person, and very observant too. My "farming heroes" so far that I can remember the names are Joel Salatin and Masanobu Fukuoka (one of the feats this guy was able to accomplish was to succesfully plant rice WITHOUT using any water... if you know anything about rice farms you must have dropped your jaw on the floor right now... LOL ) I'm happy to add Ruth to the list!
When I had a back yard garden I lived in WA state and my grass had to be mowed every five days or it would choke my mower. The mower had the grass catcher on and so I emptied the catcher on the one and half swipes and put it in the path of the garden to prevent weeds and around the plants. Gosh, I had the nicest garden with so little attention needed but to see it got enough water if the WA state rain was short, which was not often. Potatoes tasted great, zucchini grew to 18 inches over night, carrots and parsnips, and green beans, strawberries, butternut squash and more, the first year. I had turned a wild field of blackberries that had stalks were two inches across and twenty feet long all entangled into a yard with every kind of tree and flowers. She told me my yard looked like a park, and it did. I let my neighbor help herself to my garden since I was a single person and had more than I needed. I carried beautiful bouquets of flowers from my garden up the hill to her property from time to time She ended up giving false testimony against me, when I was a whistle blower learning about the corruption of the city selling easements when they knew the property owners already owned it by right of law. Files seemed to indicate that the proceeds were not going into the City Treasury. I had gone to the press, and had Sunday article with my story and my photo. She said I harassed her, something totally fabricated. But later I learned she had a criminal record for shop lifting. She likely got off on her latest adventure by cooperating. She had also taken the last four squash from my garden all at once. I had given her a key to my house to feed my cat when I went away for a week end. So grow your food but do not be so generous. Make sure you Know the person you invite into your garden when you are gone. Learn to set boundaries for other people. She was a neighbor after all. The road to hell is paved with good intentions. BYW learned she was a shop lifter with a criminal record. Sure did love having a garden.
I learned of Ruth in the early 90's and always have had success in my garden. My biggest issue is finding uncontaminated straw.. it is sprayed with ripening agents, a big no no in a healthy, safe garden. I've used rotted hay with great success but these days its been hard to get that isn't filled with pig weed! The enemy of all. I use black plastic to put over the weeds to break them down and uncover when ready to plant or I put holes in and plant my seeds in there. Not the ideal but when the ideal is not available it works.
I have one of Ruth Stout's books that I acquired while she was still alive. It's packed away somewhere, but having run into you videos about her method, I'll have to get some hay in here before the winter freezes us in !! Thanks so much for the "Flash from the Past" !!!
We do the same thing with grass. When we mow the lawn we just put it on the garden laying a 3 to 4 inch layer over the entire area. It keeps the soil moist and from getting weeds. It also take almost no work and zero expense because the grass keeps growing
Wow...great advice there at the end, I received it. Been wondering if it was too late for me(in my late 40's) to go into farming that I sooo love. Thank you!
It reminds me Fukuoka method, in principles and description. I am about to start helping in a local garden, to learn and make connections, to start my own garden this fall. Very interesting...
