Sunday, June 23, 2013

A little on the Topic of gardening, perfection, and waste...

Has anyone heard of Ruth Stout and her garden? Google it...please.

The lady in the film must be close to 85 years. She was still gardening...her way...when this film was made. It made me cringe with shame to hear that she hadn't shopped in a grocery store in years....and with that....I went out to my garden and threw a few potatoes that were destined for the compost or garbage....into the ground.

When we first bought our home, hubby's first purchase was a rototiller. He chopped up a thousand weeds which became a thousand more, and I seriously considered never gardening again. That thought lasted until I read an article about lasagna gardening. I layered cardboard on that messy plot and was pleased that I had few weeds last year. The garden did well too!

This year I ordered Triple Mix and paid a pretty penny for it. The weeds are back, and the garden needs a tonic.

Enter Ruth Stout and her garden. She has stopped plowing.. She mulches. She produces enough food to feed two people all year long...and she uses no chemicals.

For the past several weeks I have pleaded for a potato tower. After watching her film, I went out to my garden...dug a trench...and Ruth and I planted all the potatoes. If I get a handfull of healthy, chemical free spuds this year, I will be one happy gal.

I will be mulching with gusto this year. Thanks, Ruth, you are an inspiration!

2 comments:

  1. Hi Wendy. Ruth is quite an interesting lady and I've watched one of her video.

    Personally, I love digging and weeding.

    I have planted the lasagne garden some years ago and it's quite easy and it was weed free for years. Actually the flowerbed in my header on my blog was started as a lasagne garden.

    I wet the grass and put 9 overlapping layers of newspaper on top of the wet grass where I wanted my garden to be and then wet the newspaper well and covered it some mulched leaves and grass clipping and some compost manure and weed free compost and built it up and then a bit of weed free soil on top.

    Good luck with your garden.
    JB

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  2. Wendy, I'm pretty sure you can buy the organic potatoes from the grocery store and leave them in daylight until the eyes sprout for seed. I figured this out this spring after planting regular seed potatoes, and then finding my organic eating potatoes had sprouted. *light bulb moment*

    I've heard of Ruth, but not googled her. Thanks! I'll do that.

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