Planting into a Ruth Stout Garden (Quick Overview)
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- Опубликовано: 29 сен 2024
- Now that spring has officially sprung, we’ve once again begun hearing from a number of you, and many are asking the same question: How do we actually plant into a Ruth Stout garden? And more specifically, how do we direct sow our seeds, how do we transplant our seedlings, and how do we plant clones, like potatoes and garlic?
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I find your channel very informative especially the the instructions and pics you supply . Fool proof for me ! thank you 💓🇨🇦
Yay Canadian content!
Really missed you guys ❤
Planted my hugel bed for the first time last year - it did fantastic
We did something like a hugelkultur bed for a strawberry tower we bought. It needed a lot of soil to fill (something like a yard and a half), and we only had so much composted soil ready to fill it. So, I took a metric buttload (an official measurement) of sticks, wood, and bark from our burn pile to form the bottom layer, then covered it with the soil we had. The strawberries seem to love it -- we plenty of fruit last year, and they seem to have wintered well. We'll see how many blooms we get as spring gets here!
New video!! Keep it up and more content pls!!!
Thanks Tauhid! :)
We're working on it!
I use hotbeds. Our last frost date is about June 28th. I plant my garden in January in the hotbeds.
I know what you mean about gardening in the Great White North. I live in Finland and we are still waiting for our snow and ice to melt.
So glad to see you creating videos again!!!
loving this video. I'm in alaska anxiously planning my garden with a yard full of snow still.
Happy to see new video! Spring time!
Thanks Shady Man :)
I hope you enjoy it.
Finally! Thank you. I am just about to plant my garlic.
the rules for a successful Ruth Stout garden are:
1- NEVER pull out the weeds, just cover them. they will keep soil full of roots and so bring air, carbohydrates, mychorrizal web and structure (glomalin). If you don't want to add new hay because it's already enough, just insert the rake into the mulch to lift the hay and put it back to cover the weeds that grew through the hay mulch.
2- ALWAYS keep at least 20 cm of mulch. If you notice that in some places the layer is less, add some or (better choice) gather the hay left in an area with a rake as if you would make a trench (bringing 20 cm in that area again), and add another 20 cm in the now exposed area
3- use at least 80% HAY. The remaining 20% can be hay or any other type of mulch you have available, but hay is the best. We are growing veggies, not trees, remember, so woodchips and leaves are a second choice.
4- NEVER DO the raised beds. Humus does not form in the raised benches because the air passes through them, drying them and the mulch slips on the sides. Under these conditions only tenacious pioneer grasses grow to the detriment of biodiversity.
5- DON'T WATER, unless at the moment of transplanting or in case of extreme drought. Soil wants humidity, not water
Just wanted to say thanks!
When I first started gardening I came across your video on the Ruth Stout garden method. I now have had 2 decent crops of potatoes plus last year I threw in some sweet potatoes that did well also. We have incredibly heavy clay soils here in south central WI. So in half my potato bed I planted a cover crop mix that included daikon radish. I am hoping the daikon's will bust up some of that heavy clay to allow me to do some carrots (don't need over 100 lbs. of potatoes). The other half of my potato bed I build a winter compost insulated with bags of leaves.
In just 2 years it is incredible to see the change in the soil where this Ruth Stout bed is. What I really love is I never have to water my potatoes.
I am also doing paper pots for my tomatoes, peppers and vining flowers. It's not because I am incredibly cheap it is more to do with less transplant shock at time of planting, plus making pots is good therapy in February.
Really enjoy your videos.
Great, a new video from my favourite youtubers with my favourite topic :)) Great job, as always and I hope to see a video with your garden, when you started growing again :)
Thanks so much Blackhuf! We really appreciate that! :)
Ruth Stout changed my life!
I don’t strictly use straw anymore, really any mulch I can get. Chopped up leaves, wood chips, straw/hay, grass clippings, compost, etc.
Gardening is a breeze with lots of mulch.
We feel EXACTLY the same way! :)
As the season changes to fall here (mid-west USA) and our final harvests are done, I start collecting my lawn clippings when I mow and use them to rebuild the beds for spring. This makes a great bed for the fall garlic planting, and by the time spring rolls around, we've got some nice beds in which to plant.
@Homestead For A Living, thanks for the info. Water has gotten so expensive here in SoCal that I didn't garden last year. Will try this year with Ruth Stout to save on watering. I have leaves and grass available. Straw all seems to be treated with weed killer. :(. Cheers.
8u
I expected you’d just answer my previous questions in the original comments, but instead you went the extra mile and created a video just for me…thanks! This was perfect and great timing too!
Living in Denmark we are snow free as of now but still get some nights of frost. So even though you might feel that your videos are 'behind' this is still quiet perfect for us living a bit further north
I second that! I'm not as far north as you are, but my little plot is up in the mountains... The spring may be in full swing everywhere else, but I we still have some snow.
Can you guys do a video on the Grandma White Method of planting trees? I had a neighbour that did it once and he had apples on a new tree in just two years.
Are you referring to the Ellen G. White method?
@@callyscraftycorner2463 Yes. I am.
That would be cool.
Yes please! I think it would be perfect for back to reality since it gives such quick results!
You've missed a couple of important informations. First, you can pull the mulch back on big seeds such as fava beans, beans, peas, or squashes. They have enough strength to go through the mulch. Fava beans and beans can go through 10 cm of wood chips easy. For the others, more like 5 cm. And yes I still sow them in the ground, not just on it (birds would eat them otherwise). Second, the best method to sow small seeds is to use compost. You pull the mulch away, you fill the trench with mature compost, and you sow in that compost layer. It works for carrots, radishes, beets, turnips etc... That way, the light won't hit your bare ground, so you won't get weeds germinating. If you don't do that, you will have a big weeding task ahead of you when those carrots or else germinate. They're slow to grow, so weeds will take over quickly. Especially quackgrass in your case... Another advantage, the mulch won't "close in" on your seedlings from winds or walking around the seedlings on the mulch, which would hinder proper growth. I do full beds with composts when I need to sow small seeds and then I "rotate" them. Meaning I will not do two compost sowings in a row, because mature compost doesn't feed the worms and other soil life (despite what some people like Charles Dowding want you to believe). So I do it once, and do a thick mulch crop after, so worms will have food (or I do a cover crop if it's winter).
how thick do you make the compost layer?
@@Andrex4440 Ideally 7-10 cm. It's more about preventing weeds from germinating than anything, coz carrots could germinate in a 2 cm thin layer. So below 5 cm I feel like you would get patches of bare ground (coz your ground is never perfectly flat) and some stuff would go through. Also, if you have good compost, I saw that it helps germination, compared to say the very black mature and smelly compost you get at a landfill, which has heated up so much (due to the size of the mound), it's almost devoid of any nutrient.
I'm not sure that Charles Dowding mulches for the same reasons you're saying here. Seems to be that there is enough nutrients for two sowings and the proof for him is that it works and he sells vegetables consistently because of it. It's also worked for me, even on onions.
@@AK-ru3sg ofc it works it's tons of compost... The quantities he uses are beyond belief... But if you read his books or check his videos, you'll see he's got plenty of pests, and his yields aren't that great... I'd love a Brix reading on his veggies coz they should be pretty low... But for me the biggest issue with compost only is water. It drains water like sand it's a disaster. Fine in England, with constant drizzle, a disaster in mainland Europe.
@@AK-ru3sg in fact he published Brix reading on spinach leaves, and he's got only 6.... 6 is a disaster, anything below 12 is a weak plant, that insects will love to chew on. And it's not surprising : excess compost, like Dowding, = big leaves coz of excess nitrogen, = poor diluted taste coz too much water in the leaves. So the Brix is low and insects will go for it.
Since I am no longer allowed to weed per my Neuro Surgeon (ah gee, I'm gonna miss that!) and my Ruth Stout beds weren't working well here in South Carolina anyway.......raised beds are my new thing! I'm kind of going to dig down a bit and Heugaculter it and then put the raised bed over that. Then I just have to putt putt around my beds on my Scooty Puff Jr. (Futurama reference) weeding while not bending over! Where there is a will there is a way! Always learn so much from y'all. Thank you!
Had tried Ruth Stout method for a few years in the PNW, and it worked in all the reasons listed, but it keeps the soil TOO damp for the PNW temperate winters/springs and became a paradise for slugs, which ate all of our sprouts and transplants. Though like the video states, it works for potatoes and garlic, which slugs don't like. Just make sure you keep that area separate from your other greens to keep the slugs away
you need to wait for the situation to stabilize, slugs can be a problem at the very beginning but after a while a balance will create and slugs will be only one of the many organisms that live in your garden, not making big damages anymore
@@Andrex4440 I waited 3 years and balance never came. Not everything in Permaculture is applicable in every location. I suppose I could bring in ducks to help, but I live in the suburbs so ducks aren't allowed. If you look at channels like huws nursery or Charles Dowding, they are both in the UK where it's similarly wet to PNW and they don't use heavy mulched beds for the same reason. A light layer of compost to Fertilize and keep the weeds down has proven best for my annual beds. Ymmv though
Jordan Beland, I live in the Olympia area in WA. This is my first year trying a garden and I've been trying to get as much information about the Ruth Stout method as I can find. (I haven't read any of her books yet)
What have you done and had success with that is more low-maintence than the traditional watering and weeding? I have 5 young kids and don't have time for that.
@@ejbj90 we have chickens, so my approach now is every fall to pile a bunch of leaves (several cubic yards) in their run and let them scratch it, poop on it and break it down. Edible Acres channel has many videos on it. I then move it to a compost pile to age for a month or two late winter, then just use that as a light dressing (an inch or so) on the beds. Keeps weeds down, fertilizes, but doesn't hold so much moisture as to encourage slugs, at least in my area. I do still have to pick out the occasional weed (like the persistent buttercup) when I'm in the garden and water a bit in the drought months, but I still find it much less work than staying on top of slugs with Ruth Stout method in my micro climate. Ymmv though.
I feel weird giving tips to the Pros but when I plant in hay or deep mulch I role a cylinder of fence material with rectangular holes. Staple on screen put it down in the hay and plant.
I'm in Southern Idaho. We have a long time until we can do any real planting. Our last frost is in June and our first frost is in late September
I do most of my garden this way but last year with the potatoes on the top of the soil they got hit with some bug that burrowed into them and they were all destroyed. Any tips for that?
i know this is off topic but i recently watched your video about making tea from quackgrass rhizome tea and wanted to suggest you try "corn silk tea" which is what it sounds like dried corn silk brewed into tea supposedly it is very popular in Korea
Here in Switzerland it didn't rain for the entirety of March and it was over 20° Celsius at some points. Now its supposed to snow again... So many seedlings are going to end up frozen
Thank you for all your well-designed and informative videos. I am impressed with how you are using animations to teach and engage. Are you using an animation tool that you would recommend for an aspiring storyteller? Thank you again. Your teachings are valuable and motivating.
Does anyone else have a problem with slugs? I feel like they get most of our transplants and I often have to replant our garden in the deep mulch area. I live in the southeast USA where it is warm and wet in the spring, making the slugs super happy. I can't have ducks where I live. Any thoughts? (also, thanks for the new video! I love all of your content!)
Try beer traps.
Nice to see a new video. I love the part about simply throwing the potatoes down on the bare ground and covering with mulch, it worked pretty well for sweet potatoes as well.
I'm going to try wood chips in the walk lanes and use my hay/grass clippings for mulching the beds.
I have some bad clay soil that is also a bit lower that the surrounding area so it tends to hold water in one part of the garden area. I have make some raised beds out of some sheet aluminum that I got second hand. They will be about 3ft high, 3ft wide and 10ft long. I used Huglekultur and Ruth like you did for your first beds. Filled the bottom with brush I cut back from our fence lines and some downed limbs. Next some soil from an old cow paddock, then some old mulch and top dressed with new mulch. I plan to put my tomatoes and peppers in this bed this year.
Thanks again to you and your contributors for good ideas and solid results.
I am a visual person and I just love your videos with the drawings of how it happens. Thank you soooo much.
Living in cooler climate is not that bad.
1) You can always make greenhouses,
2) You have to deal with less pests and disease,
3) You can grow lots of cooler climate plants,
mosquitoes.
In the North of Scotland here and although we are blessedly snow cover free this spring our dates and season arent too dissimilar so always enjoy your videos!
Do you have moles there? If so how do you keep them out?
Great video as usual, thank you. I am waiting for the snow to melt here in Manitoba. This will be my 3rd year using deep mulch for most of my garden. I prefer raised beds with Mels mix (square foot garden) for lettuce, spinach, bush beans, carrots and beets. Have a great season.
You are lucky to get the shortest nights and the very longest days during growing season. Also no summer drought dormant periods. Lots of things you can grow that southern USA cannot. Such as the entire Ribes family and cranberries and rhubarb. Also many other crops like haskips so be happy for your advantages.
Respect from Africa 🇿🇦.
Ps. We plant all year long
I never plant the seedlings into the ground. Just right into the hay, works just fine. I have 50cm tall wooden raised beds. The seedlings are never in contact with the soil. But, amazingly, they grow and produce! Just a bit of info from my experiments.. Happy spring!
Good afternoon from the Netherlands! I really like your videos and have implemented quite a bit of advice from previous videos.
Just curious about one thing though.... maybe its different in your climate zone (we have zone 7/8 here), but last season our slugs replicated like crazy in/under the deep mulch of straw. I did have a nice structure in the ground, but the slugs keep eating my 🌱seedlings.
Do you guys have this problem as well?
If you like the Ruth Stout method i am guessing it is similar to Charles Dowding's no dig method?
Just found your channel. I found Ruth back in 2001, love her method. Justb watched your paper pots episode, have you tried earth pots?
So, this may be the wrong place to ask this question.
I'm wanting to put in a new bed. The placement is perfect with the sun, but it's clay soil. I could probably put hay down for a few years, and that would make the soil better. But, I'd really like to be able to plant this year.
Do you think tilling the clay (just to break it up) and adding a good layer of top soil (with plenty of organic matter) down, and then covering that with hay, would allow me to grow something this year?
I gave the Ruth Stout method a try... My potatoes are doing great, my onions so so, my garlics totally failled! We live in East Texas.... I think something ate the garlic!!
Do you never have the problem of birds throwing mulch back at your seed rows? Not so much a problem with plants that make strong shoots, but it is with those that take a long time to germinate anyway and are then rather tender.
I find sowing in a mulched bed really difficult in parts....
Alright I've got a boat load of leaves and some hay and some straw. I am wanting to do this method. Do I make my beds from the mulch now in the fall? Or wait till the spring?
Very helpful. Do you have to water the seeds before the plants come up and you can move the hay closer in? Or does the surrounding hay still keep it damp enough for them?
I would really like to try this method , but I have a problem with termites . Can you please advice me on how control them . Thank you
You are AMAZING! If I had friends, I would share this video.
I’m in New Mexico and our last frost date is mid April. But if you plant warm weather crops then, you’re gonna lose some! 5000’ elevation changes things!
All of brassicas, especially kale needs lots of attention when planting in hay as slugs are inevitable with this method. I would recommend over planting by alot do that you do not loose your entire crop to slugs.
Yay for a new video, you are one of my favourite creators and educators on youtube! How is your first tree coming along?
How do you deal with slugs? They eat all my young seedlings...
Planted potatoes under straw one year. Crickets ate them all.
Loved the birds at the end!
Starting a Ruth Stout on an irrigated pasture not rototilled first year.
Amazing!! Best of luck. Please let us know how it goes.
I'm actually excited to try mulching for the first time this summer. Your videos inspired me. I can't wait!! Also, your videos are the best and easier to follow. Love the visuals on all of them. Can't understate how easy learning it makes it.
Excited to see it's nearly garden "go time" Derrick! I'm looking forward to just digging a big whole and fill it in again -- it's been a looong winter.
Happy spring!
Oh man, I hear ya! As much as I love winter, I'm really glad that spring is finally here, and I'm itching to get my hands dirty!
Best of luck with that hole, too! ;)
Still have two feet of packed snow on my garden plot
I'm looking today to find answers if once I'm ready to put my potatoes in The Ruth Stout bed should I give it a watering before? Or am I just sticking it in the dry medium. And I believe you said you've never watered it from this time forward!? Might I give a light watering later after the plants are growing? Or not?
Second question, is I say medium because this year I laid down to 3-year-old hey on top of my grass, as I did not last season, but the rest is straw. will straw be okay you think? I hope so cuz that's what I have on top. It's so late in the year I'm just going to go ahead and stick in these poor chits I've had in the dark and see what happens anyway. It'll be ready for next year at least.
Well I'll look to see if you get a chance to answer this question today...
Pnw storm chaser, RUclipsr, shows maps that within the next two weeks you have areas of 1-in or more snow shattering most of Canada. For you it might just depend on how North or how elevated you are... Good luck for the coming winter. Thanks for all the great videos you produce!!!
You are so right this is a LOT of work!
Did you ever defeat the quackgrass?
Happy Spring, great to hear from you!
Do you mulch with old hay or straw?
Thank you great video
thx
Cute animation!🤗
I've been deep mulch gardening for the last 3 years or so. So glad I finally discovered this technique! It works great for all the reasons mentioned in video and gives me a place to put all my leaves!! Be sure to mow twice, to prevent matting.
Also though I am in zone 7 with I think almost 150 frost free days. For 3 months last year we had over 100 during the day and around 85+ at night. So tomatoes and lots of other crops had a really hard time.
😎✌👍🖖👌🤓😎✌👍🖖👌🤓
Welcome back
👍☮💝😘😘😘😘😘😘Thanks!
My garlic came up just fine from falls planting! Love the videos, keep it up 😁
I am new to gardening and I love this concept. I live in Georgia and will be getting my backyard prepped for this in the autumn.
Omg thank you such a great video!!!! I literally asked you guys about this last month and I am about to start planting next week 😄 Just one question, when direct sowing and pulling the mulch back, the soil is shaded by the mulch all day in my garden, will the lack of sunlight be a problem when direct sowing?
I've been looking for this quite a while now I haven't been able to quite figure mine out I've done okay but I haven't gotten them where I want some so this video is very useful!! So I should still put the seeds in the dirt last year I sold them directly on top of the dirt.... that should change things for me this year!!
Here too.
👍
Great vid! Good vibes your way 💕🌿
I have difficulties with carrots seeds and mulch put aside. The wind blow the mulch on the seeds. Maybe my mulch is just not stable enough. Thank you for sharing your planting method!
perhaps using the tactic of covering seeds with a board until they sprout
@@mmccrownus2406 I tried but the sprout are still small if the mulch goes on them. And they do not germinate at the same rate, so the board is good for the first few ones but not all of them
@@littlehomesteadbythebeach You could try laying branches or stones on the mulch to stop it from falling onto the seedlings.
Nice
:D
Many thanks, i started R.S. method last year with straw, though it doesnt seem to have broken down too well, (on clay soil), so not much experience, got your info just in time, am always looking forward to your videos, thanks again best regards from Spain
always use hay, not straw. way more nutritious for the soil and easy to digest
another amazing video that i definitely watched
lol, Thanks ;)
And you're also the first to comment!