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?
RELATED VIDEOS
The Ruth Stout Method
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bfi-n0Oq38E
Where We Get FREE Garden Mulch
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ww34XwhdeZ4
Ruth Stout’s Worst Enemy (rhizomatous grass in a deep mulch garden)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FwUw_Bq2p1Y
FAQ – Deep Mulch Vegetable Gardening (Ruth Stout Method)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mJ8ueya4HtI
337 lbs of Potatoes! NO digging, NO watering, and VERY LITTLE work!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GlratwBT5OI
No-Dig Garlic: Planting, Harvesting, and Drying (Using the Ruth Stout Method)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uhpvMg5d1OM
Loved the birds at the end!
Welcome back
Really missed you guys ❤
Planted my hugel bed for the first time last year – it did fantastic
If you like the Ruth Stout method i am guessing it is similar to Charles Dowding's no dig method?
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
So glad to see you creating videos again!!!
Yay Canadian content!
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!
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.
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).
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
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 <3
Thank you great video
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!
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.
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.
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
Still have two feet of packed snow on my garden plot
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
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
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.
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!!
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.
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