My Ruth Stout Garden Didn't Work!!!
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- Опубликовано: 16 июл 2024
- I have a number of "Ruth Stout" garden videos - and every so often I get the comment, "my Ruth Stout Garden didn't work"... and I get that it must be very frustrating and confusing to watch someone get great results, and then you try their approach, and your results are lousy.
This video is for anyone that's ever tried the no-till Ruth Stout approach and not had it perform as advertised. I talk about all the reasons that one of these garden might not work, and how to deal with them and get to a point where you're having success.
If you enjoyed this content, please like, share and/or subscribe to my RUclips channel. You can also check out my free audio podcast (maritimegardening.com ) where I discuss how to grow healthy food.
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I might fail at first if the area is a gravel pile. But aways had success by year three. To deal with the failure i tell myself....
One year to weed.
One year to feed.
One year to succeed.
Good mantra!
I don’t know exactly what mine would be called. 😂 it’s a mix of hugelkultur and Ruth stout I guess. Native soil is 95% sand. I put down cardboard, tree limbs, leaves, hay. All in a lasagna style. Seems to be working well.
Me too - I don't use any one method - but just adapt a variety of methods to my situation.
Hi, deep mulcher from rural australia here! I haven't had issues with snakes in my mulch, yet. But i always garden carefully, incase they are there. Don't shove hands into places you can't see, poke around with a fork to scare anything away, wear knee high heavy duty rubber boots etc. The snakes here make you dead. I don't take any chances.
These are true words of wisdom: " Don't shove hands into places you can't see"! Ha!
Get a porcupine . It eats snakes
@@mishca5116 goodbye inside of vagina
Awesome episode Greg, and so spot on!
I love the Ruth Stout method. My first try at it this year was a 20-foot x 20-foot potato patch. I dropped my seed potatoes on top of the dirt and mulched the patch. I got about 40 pounds of potatoes from it and that pleased me. But I did make a rookie mistake though. If I had just dropped the seed potatoes on top of mowed grass and covered with hay I would have gotten even more. But this particular patch had a tarp over it for the previous 9 months to kill all the massive amounts of really tall weed growth on it, which succeeded. But unlike soil that is growing grass, the dirt was rock hard and dry. In hindsight I should have either tilled or broken up the hard soil and then watered it to give the potatoes something softer for the roots and rain to sink into. From all that I've read though that is only a 1st year remedy for dry, hard dirt. After that you don't touch it. This fall I'm going to put a foot of mulch on top of the patch and let the rains and snow melt do their magic. Next spring I am going to drop my seed potatoes right on top of what is left of that mulch then cover it again with new mulch and walk away. I should get an even better harvest.
Amazing - I did a podcast on this very thing!
maritimegardening.com/057-its-ok-to-till/
This method has been brilliant for me because, like Ruth Stout, I am an old lady with a large garden. Digging is just not possible. Another advantage is that I have been able to use virtually all of my garden “waste “, - leaves, grass clippings, grass, chopped branches, etc, etc,whereas before I had to take it all to the recycling centre. I have been gradually turning areas of weedy grass into vegetable and flower beds by using cardboard and any available mulch, and the result is great. Water usage has also halved. I DID have a rat problem because I also have chickens, but solved that with a mix of flour and bicarbonate of soda - there are plenty of YT videos about how to do that.
That's so great to hear that it's working so well for you! Gives me hope for my later years :)
I layer in leaves/manures/grass clippings/seaweed/coffee grounds in my beds every fall covered in hay/straw; every spring I have great soil to start the year and its gets better as it continues to breakdown over the summer. Yes the mice/voles love it too.
The back to Eden garden or Ruth stout garden does the same as high density grazing. It's putting layers of Cardin on the ground. It's is amazing how weeds just go away. A weed is mother nature's bandaid. When you heal the sore they are no longer needed.even modern age is slowly learning they can't win fighting her to keep bare ground
Nice way of putting it :)
Very well put.
Yeah, yeah, permaculture is a rolling blob that snags other people's ideas and then it becomes "permaculture" (then they sell it). I have used various methods with hay and I tip my hat in the right direction toward Ruth. I live in Maine and have one Stout garden here where I planted Peruvian fingerling potatoes four years ago. By missing a few potatoes while harvesting each year, the garden has come back without any intervention. Perennial potatoes! What's not to like? I sometimes broadcast spread compost and manure (not a lot) and put wood ash from my wood furnace in the winter. I otherwise "christen" my garden in the off season. It's going well.
Love the stone circles and log beds. My kind of gardening.
Ruth Stout had some great stories , “my father said, Ruth it’s good to think for yourself , but just once in a long time couldn’t you think like other people?” And I said “like who?” And he changed the subject .. precious , just precious .
Clay is not useless, its great at keeping in water and is full of nutrients for plants.
Agreed - was simply speaking to how people think of hard clay soil. Agree that it's full of minerals and nutrients
Good for natural building material too!
I watched a Ruth Stout video and she placed old hay on top of the ground then threw her seed potatoes on the old hay, then covered them with a thick layer of old hay. If you prepare the ground first it is not the Ruth Stout method. I've done this for three years for my potato crop with great success. During the Summer when I mowing the lawn I do add the grass clippings to my top mulch. For the rest of our garden when do it the old way of tilling before we plant and we do mulch everything these days to cut down on the weeding. We do very little weeding and less watering due to the mulch. But the only thing we truly grow the Ruth Stout way are our potatoes and I could not be happier with the results.
You are treating Ruth Stout like a prophet. Her approach is an idea - not a commandment - you can improvise and play with the principles. I don't till any part of may garden - whereas you do - so it's all a question of playing with the ideas
I just garden like I think the earth wants me to. Like you said “no till” would be the closest description
Yep :)
Ruth Stout had her garden tilled for years before getting tired of waiting for the guy to come till it for her. Some gardens are going to have to be tilled initially. I didnt till my backyard, simply laid down cardboard and leaves over the sod with loads of compost on top. But there is no way I could do this in my front yard. There is simply too much deadpan or scree left from building. My first year,in backyard, was great but as the earth softened and I removed more rocks and debris the moles and voles moved in. The voles tend to prefer my beans but my garden as a whole does well. I have no weeds..deadnettle and buckwheat combined with more mulch takes care of that. Here in the South we have a whisper of spring and summer heat lasts through the fall. Here in North Carolina our weather is so very hard to predict. My neighbors a block away may get rain and I dont. So I have to water. The mulch only holds the water that it can get and the plants arent using at the time. We seldom get soft gentle rains... mostly downpours. So even with thick mulch I have to check the moisture level in my garden. Did I mention clay and sand?....Lol. Each garden is individual. Love your channel.
that,s what I was thinking, she did have a man come and till her land.
lol does microbiology mean nothing to you?
Glad to know I don't need hay. I have a dozen 100 year oaks and maples with tons of leaves in 1/3 acre.
I used leaves for my potatoes. Worked great.
Bet if you used a mulching blade through a big pile then rake it into a long bed you will have great soil.
This past Covid summer, I laid down cardboard, put mulch on top, and planted potatoes before realizing I was close to my neighbors black walnut tree. So I had 1 inch potatoes, LOL!
this might help:
www.mortonarb.org/trees-plants/tree-and-plant-advice/horticulture-care/plants-tolerant-black-walnut-toxicity#:~:text=Black%20walnuts%20produce%20a%20chemical,%2C%20nut%20hulls%2C%20and%20roots.&text=The%20highest%20concentration%20of%20juglone,beyond%20the%20canopy%20drip%20line.
@@maritimegardening4887 , thanks for the great article! Now I will plant the allium bulbs I have been putting off for fear of poisoning them!
@@maritimegardening4887 wow ty so much for this. This will be my 5th year gardening and I believe I finally figured out why I don't have good harvests with tomatoes, potatoes or peppers. After I'm done crying about it, I'll go speak to husband about it 😬
Will continue to use the the method,as I said in a recent response the reason it turned out bad for me was where in a drough situation here in Eastern Tennessee.Were going into fall with a fire ban in play,we have not had any rain here in over 5 or 6 weeks,with temps well over 90,some days reaching 100 and very humid.Even this coming week record breaking temps no rain in sight.Right around the last of may we had temps already in the 90s,lasted about week but we had rain my potatoes were lush and green,blooming big and beautiful but as soon as the hot temps and drought started you could just tell in a week they needed water,I watered every day we use rain water for the garden,it helped for awhile.My tomatos suffered greatly,this has been a very bad growing season for people here in this area.Im not looking forward to when the leaves start falling could be a bad forest fire season for us.
That does sound like prime forest fire weather. Sorry to hear about that man.
I always use spoiled hay on my potatoe beds. If I can get it in the fall, I'll lay it out over ground and just it sit there all winter. The reason I like hay is because it doesn't blow away in high winds and it doesn't get all soggy and clumped tighter like leaves. I guess I could layer leaves first and then add hay on top to hold it all together. I generally buy spoiled hay for 2 bucks per small bale and 4 or 5 cover all my potatoe beds. I also find grass is not as good as hay and it gets more compressed. So generally grass and leaves go into my compost pile. I'm going to add horse manure this year and then cover with hay just to add more nutrients in the ground. Hopefully I'll get monster size potatoes next year. This was my first year Ruth stout as well on dead grass it was ok, maybe 30-35 % medium size potatoes and the rest smaller. Still taste great.
Good stuff - I had my first Ruth Stout with spoiled silage, DAMP version of hay which we have wrapped in big round bales for dairy cows here in Taranaki. The ensiling process kills weed seeds with heat as it pickles itself. The grass was killed and the soil beneath became softer and friable with lots of worm life. The potatoes were medium to small as we had a long dry spell during the middle stages of growth. I would hand water with a hose more frequently than the 5 times over 3 months which I did last summer. I've grown broad (fava) beans through winter and will put early potatoes between the bean rows and late maincrop potatoes in as the beans are harvested in late spring. I have added calf bedding, untreated wood shavings on to the silage as well as leaves and grass clippings. Compared t the bare soil digging method - with its weeding and rowing up this method is brilliant, sustainable and an easy conversion of grass rough lawn to garden. Next summer I will rest the soil from potatoes - growing tomatoes capsicul and courgettes and make a new bed in a similar sunny spot from silage for potatoes.
Hi from the UK. I have just had my 1st year of 'No Dig' gardening which Charles Dowding has been demonstrating for several decades. He advocates the use of compost as the mulch of choice in the UK. Our climate is ideal for slug and snail breeding, so don't provide decaying matter as a home and larder as well, compost it all. Hot composting will kill the weed seeds too. It also means the mice, voles and rats are attracted there rather than to the already decayed mulch on the veg plot etc. He also shows a 'Dug' bed adjacent to a 'No Dig' bed growing the same crops, both produce crops, No Dig usually more but without the additional Digging and weeding required. Your garden looks hotter and dryer than the UK, my garden is only half a mile from the sea and looks windier than yours.
Thank you for a very interesting video.
Gwen
Hi Gwen. I get this a lot - the Dowding method comments :) I'm not conviced that slugs and snails are any more prevalent in the UK than they are here. NS is a rainy place - indeed I think we get more annual precipitation than the UK in general - though some of that is snow. I find this approach much easier, and though I do have slugs and snails everywhere, they are only a problem for some plants, and only when they are young. Over time, the predator populaiton grows and holds them in check. This way all the composting takes place int he garden beds, you do way less work, and hardly need to water at all. Dowding's approach is more labour intensive in my estimation. I've only watered this garden once since early July. My garden may look hotter and dryer, but that's most likely the visual effect of the sand pathways. It's foggy every morning here, and this time of year (Sept) it rains often. In terms of temps, we've had frost overnight twice already. In terms of wind - we had a hurricane here a couple weeks ago, and it's a constant challenge when recording to keep the wind levels down. To that point, I lose singles off my roof each year due to high winds. It's windy :)
I believe Mr. Dowding uses compost because he sells his lettuce crops. Customers are much pickier than gardeners
An added point may be that barring a few, very specific large cities, ALL of Canadian habitation is an island of suburbia surrounded by deep, intensely dense, wild land. It takes zero time for a predator population to rebalance, because wild habitat is never geographically far away. European predator populations have a much more difficult time because the balance is in the other direction; farmland and build environments surround islands of wilderness. We decidedly do NOT have the same problem that Europe is dealing with, where insect populations are in freefall and need people to create habitat for them. We are dwarfed by our wild land, and it threatens to swallow us up on a regular basis. We are also not like the US, who also has similar problems at a different scale, they have have urban and farmland environments large enough to affect predator populations in specific regions. The Canadian population is simply too small and spread out.; nature bounces back very fast into a permaculture system.
Thank you so much for explaining about your garden. I have a raised bed and do not want to spend a lot of time in it. This fall it will get horse manure and I have started mulching with garden waste and weeds. I also stopped worrying about my weeds. I pull a few and let it go.You made my gardening experience worry free.
Thanks, that's nice to hear - glad you're finding easier ways to get it done :)
My soil is hard clay and had neglected grass for years. Tried cardboard to kill the grass and added material to start a no-till plot, stuff did grow. Expanded the area and am now adding compost and working it into the soil, throwing down other products to build the soil with active microbes to feed on the compost. Like to use fish fertilizer and kelp to build the quality of the soil along with the organic materials. Its a work in progress and have already had a significant amount of produce the first two seasons.
Great to hear that you're having success!
Thanks so much for sharing your gardening gift. I need to do something with garden (3/4 acre)and going in the same direction. Onward!
I had my first Ruth Stout garden starting in October 2019 our early summer in Aotearoa- NZ. started with spoiled silage, a damp version of hay which we have wrapped in big round bales for dairy cows here in Taranaki. The ensiling process kills weed seeds with heat as it pickles itself. The grass was killed and the soil beneath became softer and friable with lots of worm life. The potatoes were medium to small as we had a long dry spell during the middle stages of growth. I would hand water with a hose more frequently than the 5 times over 3 months which I did last summer. I've grown broad (fava) beans through winter and will put early potatoes between the bean rows and late maincrop potatoes in as the beans are harvested in late spring. I have added calf bedding, untreated wood shavings on to the silage as well as leaves and grass clippings. Compared t the bare soil digging method - with its weeding and rowing up this method is brilliant, sustainable and an easy conversion of grass rough lawn to garden. Next summer I will rest the soil from potatoes - growing tomatoes capsicul and courgettes and make a new bed in a similar sunny spot from silage for potatoes.
I have a Ruth stout garden on the north side of my house. For three years now I plant potatoes in the leaf mulch I have there permanently. They grow every year nice bucket of potatoes no work just planting and harvest thanks for the idea
I tried with old hay and destroyed my garden because it was full of canadian thistle! The best mulch I used EVER was half rotted fermenting stinky grass clippings I collected in black garbage bags and left for sometime before using...I will continue to use the clippings in the future...the proof is in the pudding, I've had excellent success with them.
I agree - great for smothering weeds
Ours worked great! Two small test plots yielded twenty pounds of potatoes! We couldn't be happier and we thank you for your inspiration!
Awesome! Glad it worked out well for you :)
It didn't work for me this year ,but I,m not giving up on the Ruth Stout method and will try again next year . I am almost " no dig " and definitely believe in feeding , enriching and giving back to the good Earth around us . It is great to see what you are doing !
Thanks Daisy!
Exactly- permaculture principle - work with what you have
Great info Greg. I'm starting to talk to the wee mice now haha. I have never tilled in my life due to the ease. So funny that we now know my lazy gardening is the better way😀.
You can rest on your laurels Greta!
You did a very good job on this video.
clay has nutrients just it is hard to make it available to plants.. but if you plant daikon radish as a cover crop and let it be the soil conditioner .. it fixes nitrogen and burrows in the clay ... bit more dynamic than beans....
Greg, if you have a problem with rodents or varmints in a garden bed, plant garlic in that bed. Garlic is a great natural pest deterrent.
I've heard people say that, but in my experience it doesn't work as a deterrent for mice/voles/squirrels/chipmunks,/etc., and also, garlic doesn't grow well with everything, so for some plants it would grow so poorly that it would not be much of a deterrent anyway.
Moles, Voles, Etc. -- Nature is in my garden! Oh no!! Most humans, gardeners included, want to destroy everything that they can't see as immediately beneficial.
"Ruth stout garden didn't work for me" comes from the same attitude. S/he wants instant garden. If someone is starting from bare earth or weedy ground, it will take several years to build up to a superb growing area. The first year won't be good but it will improve every year.
If a person wants instant garden, s/he can use artificial fertilizer.
I make habitat piles for the rodents and keep the meadow area a little long. They go through my garden but don't bother with the plants there.
So true. We (hubby and self) have found that it took us 3 to 5 years to get a perfectly good garden. We have been in this house just over 3 years now and I think it will take another year before it is where we want it to be. The front garden only took 2 years because we bought in a few tons of sand, compost and used a whole bunch of chop 'n drop, planting mostly perennials....but you already know that:D . Lovely to see you here too.
I just watched Ruth and as an older person myself, I can say that in the end Ruth planted the way she did because of her 'physical' limitations. She was not growing 'to sell', she was just feeding herself and family.
She couldn't bend over so she took the chance in not planting anything as 'deep' as would be required on the back of any packet of seeds because she really couldn't get on the ground and do that, even holding a water hose nozzle open is tiring but when you have 'arthritis' it's damn near impossible. Her style required less physical effort.
Her style almost eliminated the need for technology in a time when money to hire that 'plowman' was scarce and it was probably 'cheaper' to just buy the hay and MULCH. In some areas you would lose a lot of your seed to birds doing it the way she did in the video I watched and she probably did lose seed, lol.
I do things pretty much the same way as her and rarely lose seeds. I think what you are seeing in her approach is wisdom and experience, rather than a withered old woman adapting to her limitations. JMHO :)
Mrs.Byrd, Ruth wasn't a withered old woman when she started gardening this way. She was a middle-aged woman. She looked at how nature plants seeds & thought that's the best way to do it. Nature doesn't dig 18 inch deep trenches to plant asparagus. Nature also drops dead grasses or leaves over those seeds to protect them & help them grow. Nature does it right, we mess it up by thinking we know better!
I do no-dig gardening too but have to keep the chop 'n drop mulching for the perennials int he front garden. In the back garden, I don't dare because of the slugs. Here in Wales in the UK, our climate and rainfall make mulches the perfect slug haven! So on my veg beds in the back garden, I only ever use compost to mulch and try to keep stones and other bits away from the beds. A toad has moved in this year so hopefully next year, we may just have a nicer garden!
Your hill might do wonderfully being terraced, looks nice and sunny.
Yes, I think a good design will yield good results :)
Thanks! Its so cool, and seems like the only way to me
Glad I could help!
Grass clipping unless you have Bermuda grass. It’ll thank you for helping it out ack
Loved this. Ty
Thanks :)
Just found a hole/tunnel in one of my raised bed. Don't want to meet the critter. I just dropped pebbles into the hole.
If I fear something I won’t succeed that’s how I look at it I do what I do cause I do if I fail learn from my failure but nothing keeps me down I push forward
Failure is a great teacher if you choose to learn from it :)
Thank you Greg for another fantastic video :-D Extremely motivational. Of course the R Stout method will work, humans have been farming like this for years.. fields left fallow, then the "green manure" dug in. Is the added mulching an innovation? Probably not?
Have you tried spent hops, another great mulch (any brewery will have sacks of it they need to get rid of all the time)? Also coffee roasters give away bags of chaff, which works well too.
Thanks Juniperus, - yes I'd love to try spent hops but have found it difficult to source them. There's lots of breweries in Halifax where I live, but they want you to agree to take all of them, not just a bucket full here or there.
That's a shame. Maybe better luck with coffee chaff (husks of bean)? It's often in the original bean sacks (jute?), which decompose nicely after a few months in the rain too. Bonus: smells amazing.
fancy weeds :) love that.
Your timing is perfect. I just made my first RS bed this morning. What about slugs? From what I hear they love the rotting hay.
Yes, they do - but they seem to leave potatoes alone. I have slugs and snails everywhere, but do nothing to deal with them in my potatoe beds. Perhaps the moles are eating them :)
@@maritimegardening4887 That's what I want to hear. LOL
Thank you for your videos. Your climate is most like mine of the RUclipsr gardeners and so is very helpful. Ruth Stout perfected her method on garden beds that she had tilled yearly until she started her experiment. As you pointed out the base soil affects the outcome, so if you don't want to till maybe use a broad fork or just a garden fork to break the soil and introduce air to increase micropores in your clayey soil. I also have the same problematic soil type. In most beds I have double dug into old lawn to clean up rocks and accumulated debris, plus to aerate. Composted and mulched leaves on top of that works pretty well. However, I was running out of time before winter and just turned the sod in the last bed, topped with compost and leaves. It was by far the best bed. Just a little soil disturbance seems to go a long way to increase fertility.
My cats kept the mice and voles under control. Snow allowed the rodents to build up but the cats got them in the Spring.
It's a way to clear ground, and get a crop with very little effort. If you only get 80% or 70% of what you could have got, I don't see that as a bad deal.
Agreed!
I love in Nova Scotia as well. When do you plant onions in the spring? Mine are only small time fall comes. Maybe I should be planting sooner
Plant seeds as soon as the soil can be worked, and give them all the sun thy can take.
Greetings from PEI!!! No garden yet here, just bought 12 acres wooded with an acre cut out to live in, have even seeded grass yet lol Just throwing it out there, would you by chance do consultations for a beginner? Not planning on starting until 2021, but you seem very knowledgeable and there is way too much info online for me, plus you're in the same growing zone. Anyways, awesome videos, thanks
Rob
Send me an email and we can discuss
maritimegardening.com/connect/
I have tried various mulches and I found that grass clippings and leaves clumped together and harboured so many garden-eating bugs. Besides, weeds always grew. Until I tried hay several years ago. I get huge bales of year old hay very cheaply and have no trouble with weeds appearing - except dandelions and they will grow through anything! But they aren't a bother. I keep adding hay as needed and for sure before winter sets in. So whatever you can get and what works for you is the main thing. Always love your informative videos. Thank you for taking the time.
Thanks. Great to hear you found a way to make it work :)
Ruth lived in a particular area. Her method began after years of plowing up the soil, not wanting to wait for the late plowman that year.
The concepts are good, but carrots for instance are said to need worked or loose soil to grow downward without
interference.
I don't till my soil. I live in a different climate from where she lived. My carrots always turn out great. The soil organisms work the soil for you - that's the piece you're missing.
@@maritimegardening4887 I hear you on the mulch. One guy put cardboard down with a wide enough border to keep weeds out of the main garden. He used manure and compost layered on top. Some plant in plain manure.
My first gardening experience was as a kid in Mesa, Arizona. I got the carrot seeds. The triple digits and ground wasn't going to be successful for me, but mulching over it might have helped. I have raised beds now, but if I don't have time to let the biom make soil, or break a hardpan in the past, I still dig a bit. As I get older, I see Ruth's method as helpful.
This year I'll mulch more and water less, but the road apple fall covering should turn in nicely.
I learned last year, potatoes need plenty of sun to make photosynthesis for food to get a good yield.
middle of the michigan mitten US... 1st year stouter. started 7 weeks ago . tiled old grass field now a food plot with 8 inch flakes off of oat straw bales. sprayed with diluted animal molasses and watered and broadcast organic nitrogen both to activate and feed the soil micro organisms to start . Just finished planting corn and amaranth in the gaps and the bottom half is staying wet. Parted areas for other seeds. Be sure to check with the source of your mulch hay straw whatever and make sure they didn't use any of the 4 main "persistent" herbicides . these herbicides do not break down through animal digestion or exposure to sun or elements and will keep any broad leaf plants like your intended vegetables from sprouting or growing and who would want to eat them if they did, for years to come ... irresponsible science. thanks DOW Chemical . just because you can make something doesn't mean you should. I checked after I had spread my straw because I didn't know about this and the farmer who grew my oat straw (straw has alot less seeds) did use 2 herbicides but only once early on, but they are supposed to break down rapidly and neither one has any of the four persistent chemicals that I heard of ... whew ! Hopefully this is all good. Ill let you know if my seeds make it ...
Never been a prob for me - but it's a good caution, especially in places where this is allowed
Right!!
Thanks
I don’t mind jerry the mice 🐭 visit my garden at all
They are so adorable and cute
What exactly is spoiled hay. When I used to muck horse barns, often we'd roll out bales that were grey and musty inside (unusable for horse)...is that good or no?
That's the spoiled hay - that's the hay I use when I can get it for free.
I enjoyed your video. Do you shred your leaves before using them as a mulch on your garden???
Sometimes - the larger types of leaves blow around less if you shred them up with a mower
@@maritimegardening4887 Thanks !!!!
I enjoy your videos.I am in NJ in zone 6b similar to your zone. I do not have fences on my property, we have deer /squirrel/chipmunks etc. What can I grow in a non fence environment? If you have a video about this please let me know.
I've found onions, squash, pumpkins, potatoes, tomatoes, garlic, & herbs to all be ok outside the fence - and I have lots of different herbivores outside the fence.
@@maritimegardening4887 Thanks for your reply. I guess that leaves out turnips, radishes, shelling peas? I just bought seeds for these , I will try the garlic and potatoes
Is that red clover in your weeds? I think they fix nitrogen in the soil. I eat them (the flowers) in eggs or just as pretty garnish. Weeds are so useful! My son had some luck with potatoes with year. More mulch next some will get more spuds I bet. Thanks for this video!
Not sure, but I do have clover everywhere
Red clover have very tasty flowers. Not a strong taste but definitely good as a garnish or in a salad.
I thank you for this video. You highlight a basic misunderstanding with the 'Back to Eden' approach. Some have adopted the approach (I have in mind as an example a Farm in Sweden owned by a German family) believing that tree chippings are the only fertiliser the ground requires, this is due to the originator of the concept growing his garden in a forest. But they, and sadly many others, have ignored the fact that his garden is in a river plain, and the soil is already fertile (your point). Sadly they are investing their savings in buying tons of wood chip and piling it over barren land, and then wondering why they do not have excellent crops. 'Back To Eden' is really disguising a fundamental, that you highlight, that organic matter (and wood chips are a 'poor brother' here) and some existing soil nutrients are required for plants to flourish. Forests are not spectacularly fertile or productive, and that is for a reason. Very informative video.
That's crazy. I hope a lot of people aren't spending good money on mulch. There are many benefits to applying mulch, but there are so many options that there shoudl be something that you can source for free that does the job. Also agree that woodchips are the least of them in the nutrient department. I also think woodchips break down a lot faster in warmer climates, and thus, provide more nutrients in those situations, but in a place like Sweden (more like where I live) they are probably not breaking down at all for about 6 months of the year. Hay, by contrast, breaks down fast, building the soil quickly.
Greg-- I love your videos. I have been using Ruth Stout methods for a long time and it just gets better every year. I think the resin people might have trouble with Ruth Stout methods is because she like to garden NUDE!!! Just watch " Ruth Stout Garden video on RUclips and she talks about. I think that was part of her success. She said she like to feel the air on her skin. That's a wonderful thing to enjoy. That the true Ruth Stout method
I take my shoes off sometimes but that's as far as it goes :) !!!!
In one straw revolution he says that you get more pests when the soils too rich from fertilizing, maybe that what happened with them potatoes since it was originally a compost pile.
And what about merging ruth stout method and charles dowding method? I saw someone on RUclips making a lasagna garden with every green/brown stuff he could find/cut, throw it on the ground (thick layer), making a hole in the mulch where to put some compost and then transplant right after that. This way you can plant immediately, you need way less compost and you're enriching soil with a lot of decaying mulch. What do you think? I'm creating a new veg garden, I have some compost and a lot of leaves/grass to use and I'm thinking to proceed this way
Dowding's method requires far more frequent watering than the r-stout method - that's why I don;t use it.
@@maritimegardening4887 I understand and you're right, but I was talking about using compost just under the plant in order for it to settle, while around the plant would be lasagna/Ruth Stout garden
So I want to do this. I have a small garden I started this year but want to expand it. If I lay down (over the whole garden area including the new addition) a bunch of composted manure from the garden center, throw all of my fall leaves and cover it in straw, I can plant in spring? Don't you come across issues with any types of deficiency? I know this year I had blossom end rot on my maters and had to make some calcium slurries to correct it. I also had some insect issues and powdery mildew on my zucchini. Does that ever happen with Ruth Stout? I'm in Pennsylvania 6B. Thanks.
The first few years problems happen because the soil and it's ecosystem is in a state of dramatic change. Don't over think it. You'll have good and bad results, and it will get better with time. You are feeding the soil organisms - so your soil will improve over time. Just keep calm and keep gardening on :)
Similar situation here. Have a small traditional garden now and about to add some additional beds in the lawn next to it. I'm going to use 2x6 lumber to build boxes around them. Starting with a layer of cardboard to smother the grass and invite the worms, then borrow some of my garden soil and compost, then add a layer of twice chopped leaves. I have an abundance of leaves every fall, so it's a win-win. Mow them twice (or more) or they will be very matted in the spring. Not good. I'm switching to no-dig this fall. So am planning to apply compost and thick layer of chopped leaves every fall. Remaining leaves in spring will act as weed barrier, hopefully. That's the idea anyways. Fun experiment if nothing else.
I found I had a load of snails living under the mulch and even though I collect them every day there are just as many the next day and they eat the new foliage I am trying to grow.
There's no point in collecting them. Use a bit of slug bait - there are types that are OK for organic gardening - but only use a little - over time you will find that predators show up to eat the snails.
Jan Ward
That is exactly what turned me off. Snails slugs and millipedes.
@@carlottawalker6185 I think the Ruth Stout method is trickier in the UK climate here due to issues with slugs and snails.
according to everything I've read and heard Ruth had the same answer for any problem ,pile on more of whatever you are mulching with. the act of decomposing continuously typically creates enough heat to maintain a healthy ecosystem that keeps any species from being a problem especially because you didn't destroy the structure of the soil starting this and certainly not every year. if there is a snail or slug problem maybe add organic source of nitrogen starting in the fall but you can use it at reduced rates throughout. specific traps outside the plot are pretty successful too
you have got to watch the video interview of her at her house and garden if you can find it ...I found one with subtitles in another language from english. ruclips.net/video/GNU8IJzRHZk/видео.html an individual thinker who broke up saloons with Carrie Nation at the age of 16 in 1900, she also enjoyed the feel of air on her skin ( her words u have to hear her) and would often undress completely on reaching her garden to work on it. had never told her husband, because why would she ? but he figured it out from the cars slowing down as they drove by .. and thank the heavens she had a plowman who came late as she also rediscovered a completely natural and organic method of gardening that works great without any Chemicals for DOW or anyone else. She didnt set out to change how everyone grows food but to do it easier and smarter. The by product shows that the industrial agriculture industry has convinced us to pollute the ground and our food when we don't need to . Science has come along and shows that a healthy soil structure that does not get plowed is better for your garden . I wish her books were reprinted or gone digital.
I've seen that one - good video!
This isn't related to the Ruth Stout Garden Method but it is on my mind. Have you ever heard of Asian jumping worms? If so, are they in your garden beds?
That's a new one for me - never heard of them sorry :)
If the damage "pest" creatures do is negligible, why did you say you kill them? I am hoping to use a no till, no kill (at least of animals), method.
It depends on what plant you're talking about - and what stage of it's development. For instance - with kale - when they are 1" high - the pests (slug, snail and flea beetle) completely destroy from 50% to 80% of the plants - so intervention is required. Once they are a bit bigger - like say 8" high, the pest damage is negligible. The slugs are still around - they are everywhere - but they no longer affect the plant in any meaningful way. Squash can be attacked when they are very small, but are invulnerable once the spines appear on their stems. Does that help>? For animals - I only intervene is I see a real problem. 95% of the rodents in my garden live long, fulfilling rodent lives :)
The problem is with the idea of 'weeds'. 'Weeds' are simply unwanted plants. Mulching does not not destroy weeds. If mulching encourages potatoes, it also encourages weeds. What you want is to encourage root competition, not discourage it. It's called biodiversity. I don't want to encourage, for example, potatoes, to boost production, but to promote natural competition. I will absolutely accept smaller vegetables whilst encouraging root competition. If you try to discourage certain types of plants, for sure you will encourage root systems you didn't envisage. So accept smaller crop yields whilst accepting weeds and critters. It seems so simple to me.
Your claim:
"The problem is with the idea of 'weeds'. 'Weeds' are simply unwanted plants. Mulching does not not destroy weeds. If mulching encourages potatoes, it also encourages weeds"
- is somewhat incorrect. Heavy mulching smothers weeds - but potatoes can find their way through a heavy mulch. To put it another way - only seeds or rhizomes with a lot of energy stored in them can find their way through a heavy mulch.
@@maritimegardening4887 Hi, thanks for the reply, but again I disagree. I am constantly weeding my deep mulch garden. There are plants that can crack concrete, and a deep mulch creates so much beneficial activity underneath where the composting takes place that of course it encourages all plant life. It does not smother some plants while allowing others to prosper. It's not just potatoes that can find their way through a heavy mulch. Everything can. I love the Ruth Stout method and I have great results from it, I just wanted to point out that, in my experience, the biggest fallacy about it is that it somehow suppresses weeds. It doesn't, it facilitates them just as much as it facilitates every other plant.
It has worked great for me despite having severe slug problems. They even eat the potato stems to some extent, but it doesn't really hurt them.
Direct seeding in to openings in the mulch was a total fail for the more tender plants like brassica and mustard family. For those you need to use large transplants. Carrots on the other hand did fine.
Someone claimed quackgrass in the mulch repell slugs, but I don't have enough to test it, and I really don't want to encourage that awful plant either.
I have lots of slugs and snails and I have found the same thing that potatoes do fine despite them. You can direct seed brassicas (I do) but you need to lay down a bit of slug bait (maybe one application every 2 weeks) until the plants are big enough to withstand them. For me, usually by July I no longer need the slug bait
@@maritimegardening4887 iron sulphate?
Ticks?
I'm not sure what you are trying to ask - can you elaborate a bit?
@@maritimegardening4887 aren't there tick problems with straw?
If cropping it for another two years doesn't work will you consider broad forking it it's not considered no till but technically you're not cultivating the land and exposing all the microorganisms to sunlight and it would help break up the heavy clay. I bet the crop failed because the ground didn't drain well enough. I don't believe you have that soil I believe it just really heavy clay.
I do whatever is needed. Usually if a bed isn't performing I make it a hugelkultur bed and that seems to solve the problem most of the time
@@maritimegardening4887
Hmm sounds like a matter of personal choice me for example I like knowing what's in my soil number wise that's why I like soil testing when you're growing in the pile of organic matter you don't know how much nitrogen can be in that pile as the pile decays it will release available nitrogen inside the pile depending on the C/N ratio maybe a little too much for the microbial population to handle. Well you see soil microbes only need 10 to 12 lb of available nitrogen per acre. And the thing is the microbes in exchange for exudates will fix nitrogen for the plants and Supply it as it's needed directly to the plant. Regardless if they're a legume or not. Resulting in massive savings for the farmer in fertilizer cost. The lack (excess) nitrogen ensures that the microbes do not steal carbon from the organic matter nor they convert all that excess nitrogen into water soluble form (nitrates) and to me when I'm working with the soil that just organic matter feel that I can't see what I'm doing. But you're more looking to build over the existing with your own if this doesn't work out. To each their own.
This whole "No-Till" stuff maked no sense. like tilling is an evil that will kill your garden. lol.
It's not that you can't till - it's that you don't have to bother with it. Why do something that you don't have to do? It makes perfect sense - look at my garden. I do a fraction of the work that I used to do, and get equal or better results.
You need to add taking off your clothes when you are gardening. That is what Ruth Stout did. She was very successful with her garden.
You talk in circles.
It's an essay style of presentation: you give an intro laying out what the discussion is about, and why you are talking about it; then you get into it, with examples and elaboration; and then you summarize.
Please feel free to watch another video