By Guest author Vlad Girboan
The magic trick togrowing tomatoes , potatoes , and otherhealthy constitutive foodis make a passing fertile soil without supply any chemical fertilizers . For belittled - graduated table gardening , amending your soil with fresh compost andleaf moldwill be more than enough . However , if you start scaling up , shovel that much compost can quickly become a intimidating labor .
Luckily , along the years there have been countless persons who dedicate their spirit to garden and find betterorganic gardeningmethods . Some of their finding were then tested by other gardener and the most successful method became famous . Ruth Stout was a gardener who developed a truly alone and simple method acting .
Who Was Ruth Stout?
Ruth Stout was one of the most passionate gardeners to have ever lived . Born in 1844 in the United States , she spend 51 age of her life horticulture . She compose a destiny about what she learned through the years , particularly about hersoil amending techniques .
Like many other inspired gardeners , Ruth Stout looked to nature to see how productive soil is created naturally and tried to imitate the same methods in her garden . While she was definitely not the inventor of the method acting she used , she was the first to write about it and document her experimentation .
The Ruth Stout Method of Gardening
The Ruth Stout method is also called the faineant gardening method , and for good rationality . Ruth studied the raw environment around her garden and attempt to find a direction to improve her garden ’s land fertility by letting nature do all the work . She figured out that wield a permanent mulch layerimproves soil qualityand protect it from the ingredient .
The good mulching material in her vitrine was hay , which she had in copiousness and readily available . She started cover her garden in a duncish layer of hay mulch , imitating the natural conditions from the grasslands around her farm . The thick hay stratum mostly smothered theweeds in the garden , spare Ruth from pull grass all 24-hour interval long . As presently as Modern green goddess appeared , she just covered them with more hay .
As months passed , the hay layer started compacting slowly and became thicker and thicker . She later label that a 20 - in ( 50 - atomic number 96 ) thick-skulled layer of hay is perfect for when first start out . Although it seems like a lot , the hay will actually compress and break down , adding to the fertility of the soil .
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Benefits of the Ruth Stout Method
The mulch stratum of hay forbid water vapour so the garden requiresless watering . The bottom layers of hay will break down through the natural compost process and turn into beautiful , fertile dirt . This also improves the number of helpful bacteria , fungus kingdom , and microorganisms in the soil .
The top hay level protect the garden from the sunlight , clayey rainwater , and tip eating away . UV illumination from the Lord’s Day is known to founder down nutrients in garden soil and dense rains and lead often carry nutrients away , specially if you ’re not gardening on a monotone control surface . At the same time , the top layer create a sodding home ground forbeneficial bugs such as ladybugs .
Shortcomings of the Ruth Stout Gardening Method
As wonderful as it sounds , the Ruth Stout method acting is not perfect . Hay and straw are gamey in carbon copy and want nitrogen so you have to balance that with something high in constitutional N . While Ruth used cottonseed repast in her garden , bring wise - swerve grass ( free of pesticide ) , might be more convenient .
Since not all plants like the same character of soil , you might want to use dissimilar techniques around your garden . Whilepotatoeswill thrive in this blockheaded hay layer , other industrial plant will need dissimilar conditions .
Also bet on when the hay - grass was geld , your hay can moderate a luck of various seeds that will now be append to your garden . One way around this is to use straw instead of hay . It insulates better , breaks down faster , and is comparatively seed - complimentary .
For your mulch layer , choose the material that is easiest to get in your area . If you live in a grassland area , hay is the agency to go . If grain are grown on a large scale in your domain , go for straw bales . If you live in a forest area and you have dozens of extra woodchips , use them as mulch . If you live in anurban area , bagged mulches are available at your local garden centre .
If Ruth learn us anything it ’s that horticulture is not supposed to be a chore . produce organic solid food is all about using the least amount of sweat and let nature do the oeuvre for you .
