Ruth Stout’s System for Gardening

Shouldn’t the hay be chopped? Well, I don’t have mine chopped and I don’t have a terrible time — and I’m 76 and no stronger than the average person.

Can you use grass clippings? Yes, but unless you have a huge lawn or have neighbors who will collect them for you, they don’t go very far.

How Do You Sow Seeds into the Mulch?

You plant exactly as you always have, in the Earth. You pull back the mulch and put the seeds in the ground and cover them just as you would if you had never heard of mulching.

Isn’t It Bad to Mulch With Hay That May Be Full of Weed Seeds?

If the mulch is thick enough, the weeds can’t come through it.

One man in a group I addressed was determined not to let me get away with claiming that it was all right to throw a lot of hay full of grass seeds on one’s garden, and the rest of the audience was with him. I was getting nowhere and was bordering on desperation, when, finally, I asked him:

“If you were going to make a lawn, would you plant the grass seed and then cover it with several inches of hay?” Put that way, he at last realized that a lot of hay on top of tiny seeds would keep them from germinating.

However, it’s true that you can lay chunks of baled hay between the rows of vegetables in your garden and, in a wet season, have a hearty growth of weeds right on top of the hay. To kill unwanted weeds all you need do is turn over the chunk of hay. Now, this isn’t much of a job but some ardent disciples of my system are capable of getting indignant with me (in a nice way, of course) because they are put to that bother. I have relieved them of all plowing, hoeing, cultivating, weeding, watering, spraying and making compost piles; how is it that I haven’t thought of some way to avoid this turning over of those chunks of hay?

How Can You Safely Plant Little Seeds Between 8-inch Walls of Mulch?

One can’t, of course, but almost before one gets through spreading it, the mulch begins to settle and soon becomes a 2- or 3-inch compact mass rather than an 8-inch fluffy one. It will no doubt be walked on, and rain may come; in any case, it will settle. As a matter of fact you won’t need 8 inches to start if you use solid chunks of baled hay.

Many People Want to Know Why I Don’t Use Manure and What I Have Against It

I have nothing at all against it; in fact, I have a somewhat exaggerated respect for it. But I no longer need it; the ever-rotting mulch takes its place.

I sort of complained, in my first book, that no one ever wrote an ode to manure, and through the years since then at least a half-dozen people have sent me poems they composed about manure piles.

I have been asked over and over if such things as sawdust and oak leaves should be avoided, the idea being that they make the soil too acidic. I use sawdust, primarily around raspberries, with excellent results. We have no oak trees, therefore I can’t answer that question from experience, but I certainly wouldn’t hesitate to use them; then, if it turned out that they were making the soil acidic, I would add some wood ashes or lime. I’ve had reports from a great many gardeners who have used both sawdust and oak leaves over their entire garden and have found them satisfactory.

How Often Do You Put on Mulch?

Whenever you see a spot that needs it. If weeds begin to peep through anywhere, just toss an armful of hay on them. What time of year do you start to mulch? The answer is now, whatever the date may be, or at least begin to gather your material. At the very least give the matter constructive thought at one; make plans. If you are intending to use leaves, you will unfortunately have to wait until they fall, but you can be prepared to make use of them the moment they drop. Should you spread manure and plow it under before you mulch? Yes, if your soil isn’t very rich; otherwise, mulch alone will answer the purpose.

How Far Apart Are the Rows?

Exactly the same distance as if you weren’t mulching — that is, when you begin to use my method. However, after you have mulched for a few years, your soil will become so rich from rotting vegetable matter that you can plant much more closely than one dares to in the old-fashioned way of gardening.

How Long Does the Mulch Last?

That depends on the kind you use. Try always to have some in reserve, so that it can replenished as needed.

Now for the Million Dollar Question: Where Do You Get Mulch?

That’s difficult to answer but I can say this: If enough people in any community demand it, I believe that someone will be eager to supply it. At least that’s what happened within a distance of 100 miles or so of us in Connecticut, and within a year after my book came out, anyone in that radius could get all the spoiled hay they wanted at 65 cents a bale.

If you belong to a garden club, why can’t you all get together and create a demand for spoiled hay? If you don’t belong to a group, you probably at least know quite a few people who garden and who would be pleased to join the project.

Use all the leaves you can find. Clip your cornstalks into foot length pieces and use them. Utilize your garbage, tops of perennials, any and all vegetable matter that rots. In many localities, the utility companies grind up the branches they cut off when they clear the wires; and often they are glad to dump them near your garden, with no charge. But hurry up before they find out that there is a big demand for them and they decide to make a fast buck. These wood chips make a splendid mulch; I suggest you just ignore anyone who tells you they are too acidic.

Recently, a man reproached me for making spoiled hay so popular that he can no longer get it for nothing. The important fact, however, is that it has become available and is relatively cheap. The other day a neighbor said to me, “Doesn’t it make you feel good to see the piles of hay in so many yards when you drive around?” It does make me feel fine.

Now and then I am asked (usually by an irritated expert) why I think I invented mulching. Well, naturally, I don’t think so; God invented it simply by deciding to have the leaves fall off the trees once a year. I don’t even think that I’m the first, or only person, who thought up my particular variety of year-round mulching, but apparently I’m the first to make a big noise about it — writing, talking, demonstrating.