Ruth Stout, born in 1884, devised a method of gardening that probably made a lot of traditional farmer's veins stick out in their neck. Her "No Work" or lazy style of gardening was developed because of not only the amount of work it takes to keep a garden going, but she had to rely on someone else to plow her garden for her and she just wasn't willing to keep waiting around. So, she planted without plowing and simply covered it up with hay and hoped for the best. What she had done, ultimately, was create a whole new way of gardening.
The hay acts as a mulch when first applied. It keeps the moisture in the ground and it suppresses the weeds that may want to grow. As time goes on, the hay breaks down and feeds the soil. Constantly adding more hay, keeps this cycle going. The trick is to getting it at least 8 inches deep. This does as mentioned earlier, mulch and suppress, but it also keeps the seeds that are in the hay from sprouting as well. Continually adding hay on top throughout the season, keeps everything working as it's supposed to. When asked how much hay you need to do this, Ruth always replied "More".
We are not what you would call great gardeners by any means. We have tried the Back to Eden method, traditional rows and a couple of other methods. But, this year we tried out Ruth Stout's method and are really happy with the results. In the video below, you will see how we prepared our first Ruth Stout bed. After that, the rest of them were easy to make.
We have linked the next video before, but in case you missed it, below you will see us planting several different things and a good majority of those are planted in Ruth Stout beds. So, check it out to see our other methods of using this to work for us.
