Customer Reviews

The Ruth Stout No-Work Garden Book: Secrets of the Famous Year-Round Mulch Method

5 star:		(13)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

With arthritis, degenerative disk disease and spinal stenosis, I may very well be spending my last years in a wheelchair. With Ms. Stout's method of gardening, I will never go hungry. It is possible to plant a few plants (or harvest a few things) every day in the very early morning hours when I can stand to be outside. When my kids come see me, they lay a few bales of hay (or straw) around here and there so I can grab a handful and throw it on anything growing without permission. She was a wise old woman (with a great sense of humor)!!

My mom gave me this book ages ago, which is why I have a copy (it's been out of print for a while). I finally decided to read it this winter, and have been enjoying it immensely. It's based on previously published articles, so you won't find all the information on asparagus all on one page. But her writing style is clear and easy, and so engaging and entertaining that you don't mind reading it from cover to cover. Also, there is a handy index in the back, so that you can always just go to the pages that have the useful info on any particular item. I liked the book so much that I decided to order Ruth's No Work Gardening for the Aging, Busy, and Indolent. It just arrived today and I can't wait to start reading it!

Great Book--I have actually tried this method for the last 8 months--I live in the desert close to Boise ID. It has cut my gardening work greatly--the mulching holds the moisture in the ground = LESS watering! and VERY FEW weeds!!!!

I bought this book twenty years ago. I read it and didn't do it. Now I am on a farm and have a half acre garden. I re-read the book, and after three years of mulching a la Ruth Stout, and putting in the tomato fence that is described in one of the later chapters, I truly have my garden under control.

It didn't happen over night. It took three gardening seasons for the mulching to become very effective, because each year the weeds are under a little better control. Last summer, I wasn't ashamed of my garden, not even in August, when it used to be a complete tangle of weeds. A nice side effect is that all of that mulch turns into wonderful compost, just lying there in the garden. No turning, no nothing, just mulch and let it do its thing.

Buy it and try it - it will change the way you garden forever!

After reading The Ruth Stout No-Work Garden Book, one might think it is too simply put and lacking important information, but it's not. Year-round mulching is just so incredibly simple in itself. We have been mulching in our vegetable garden for about ten years now and the soil has become rich enough that we don't use the tiller anymore, just a slight loosening via a pitch fork works fine. Earthworm population has increased dramatically since we did that. I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in gardening.

I sincerely wish I could have met the old girl. Her gardening advice boils down this: mulch with straw, and heavily, and often. The rest of the book is pure Ruth, and it's worth a read just to have her voice in your head. If you've been curious about no-dig, this one is the original and best. I wish she was still with us today to comment on this crazy, wonderful resurgence of vegetable gardening.

Ruth Stout No Work Garden is the BEST gardening book that I ever read! Because it works! The books of hay take all of the work out of gardening. After laying down the hay and doing some companion gardening I watered the garden once or twice and then watched it grow! In a few weeks I was sitting in the garden all afternoon eating fresh vegies! Never lifted a finger again to water or weed!

An amazing lady with a fantastic approach to gardening. She was 50 years before her time. The book is a great addition in the library of anybody interested in growing vegetables without chemicals. I have a few reservations - for anybody gardening in a wet climate with lots of slugs and snails, I am not sure if coping with these in the mulch will be a big problem, I am looking forward to checking this out firsthand. My criticism of the book is that it is written around one topic, mulching, and while the topic is fascinating, it doesnt really need a whole book for the subject.

Saw her on YouTube, started search 4 her now unpublished books. They aren't edited, therefore, it feels as if ur listening to her speak. All her books skip around so I started writing down gleamed tidbits until I had read enough to see a full pic of her overall concept. She must hav been a wonderful person, her concept wasn't new but she found it on her own. Overall perfection, she was.

It was fun reading this book. Lots of good ideas. Don't know if I'll put them to use, but very
enjoyable thinking about it :-)