Ruth Stout Gardening

 I've tried just about every type of gardening in the past forty years. Back to Eden, Square Foot, Lasagna, and the old, tried and plow it up and plant plus a few more. I even tried out planting in the weeds only to end up failing. They all have one thing in common they build up the soil except the tiller option. It's different strokes for different folks. But it's beside me on getting a decent harvest on this new homestead. It's a constant battle with varmints and weeds.

I watched an interesting documentary on Netflix this week entitled, "Kiss the Ground." I found it interesting because it reinforced my beliefs in the way I've gardened all my life. The whole gist of the show was to reduce the carbon footprint of the Earth by building soil not dirt. I've always gardened organically, only tearing up the dirt to add amendments but only the top six inches. As of 8 years ago, I stopped tilling with a cultivator altogether in favor of building up the beds as they stood. I've looked for other ways to combat the weeds. I am selective in my weed control also. Not every weed is a bad weed. My newest choice is the Ruth Stout Method. Although I've been doing a variation of this all along, I'm going to try it just as it was written up by the lady herself.  

This spring, I was hopeful and praying that our vegetable garden would produce a good harvest. But the cockeyed weather cycle beat me down. Constant rains, cooler than normal weather, and blistering hot and humid weeks just ruined all my efforts.

We've got some major changes happening on the homestead over the next two to three years. It's something that has been in the plan all these years since I moved up to these northeast GA mountains, but couldn't implement it. But more on that later.

This year was a bad year for vegetables, but a great year for fruits as you can tell from my posts. For the past two weeks it's all been about apples. Applesauce, apple cider, mincemeat, diced and sliced, pie filling, apple butter, and on and on, ending with pectin and apple cider vinegar. The apple harvest like all my plants were delayed by a month because of the weather. It's actually been a good enough year for fruits that I've put up at least two years worth. 

But as yucky as my vegetable harvest was, I was able to shop locally (friends and neighbors) and the wholesale house for vegetables to put by. I actually put up 18 months worth of vegetables. All that is left to can is meats, but I can locally source that too as needed. I put my meager stimulus check to good use in restocking my pantry out building. Did I tell you we found a rat proof insulation...corrugated foil wrap. It set us back almost $200 but it's worth it. The stores building stayed about 60 degrees even on the hottest days of summer.

Back to the topic at hand. With the changes upcoming in fall 2021, I've got spring and summer to make the garden produce even more food stuff. After that I won't have an easily access garden in front of our trailer for at least a year. I'll have to garden in the orchard area. It will be competing with the wheat and oats, and orchard grass that's usually grown down there. Now, there's the new chicken coops and runs as well as the fruit trees. It's getting to be a crowded 1/4 acre. But it's only a short-term situation.

With my eyes on higher production, I read about the Ruth Stout Method of gardening. I was intrigued. Basically, you grow your vegetables in 2'-3' mounds of hay and compost. With our chickens, we've got plenty of compost. Getting that much hay is problematic but doable. We still have enough wood chips from the tree service delivery to make the walkways. I'll still be doing the weed blocker fabric for my tomatoes and peppers. My tomatoes might have died, but it held the weeds down to a manageable chore.

Now that there's a lull in food preservation or at least slowing down a bit, I can split my focus on preparing beds for next year. This experiment will be for my carrots, onions, potatoes, and sweet potatoes. Later on in the season, there'll be other crops planted. I'm thinking green beans, cucumbers,  and maybe squashes in the hay rows. It will definitely be easier on my back harvesting them.

If this works, I'll have a jump start in 2023 with a new 50' x 120' homestead/market garden.  Yes, I'll mostly be starting from scratch again...sigh!, but at least it will be a regular type garden instead of plant where you can around the landscaping. I'll have to bring in truck loads of wood chips and compost for that first year, but after that, our homestead should produce enough to maintain the new garden. Also in the works is a high tunnel greenhouse (20'x 50') and a small seed starting greenhouse (10'x10') made of repurposed windows and pallet lumber. It'll be this homesteader's dream fulfilled when finished...or at least these homesteaders.

Y'all have a blessed day!

Cockeyed Jo