Ruth Stout Gardening In Northern California

Gardens

July 21, 1974

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July 21, 1974

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HOW does $35.75 sound as total cost for one year's supply of vegetables for two? That's whit Ruth Stout spends for all the vegetables she and her sister can eat. In fact, Miss Stout maintains that she hasn't eaten a vegetable she hasn't grown in at least 30 to 40 years, "except when I go out to dinner, and then they just don't taste as good."

This extraordinary economy is just part of an extraordinary person—Ruth Stout — gardener, author, maverick, raconteur. She is outspoken, warm, fun loving and enthusiastic, especially when talking about her favorite subject, gardening.

Though Miss Stout recently celebrated her 90th birthday, June 14, one has the feeling that she is ageless. Oh, her hair is snow white and her face has wrinkles, but her stride is strong, she wears glasses just to read and every question is heard and answered quickly with a firm voice.

Widely known in gardening circles as a sort of pioneer, Ruth Stout has championed an unusual method of gardening, a mulch system on top of the soil that eliminates the rototiller or spade. One of the first things that anyone who visits with her gets straight is, We are not going to talk about organic gardening. I garden organically, but I call it easy gardening. Many gardeners work like the devil but that is not my subject."

Even the title of one of her best known garden books bears this out, "How to Have A Green Thumb Without An Aching Back." This self‐styled economic method of vegetable gardening is carried out on a 55‐acre farm in region of Redding Ridge, Conn. called Poverty Hollow. Fortunately for so popular a local figure, the old brown shingled farmhouse is tucked neatly away from the main routes and only by scouting and questioning the locals can anyone find where it is.

Over the years, thousands have come to see Ruth Stout's soil wonderworks. Her money‐saving method evolved from the first days she and her late husband, Fred Rossiter, who died 13 years ago, bought the old farm to get away from the city. That was 45 years ago.

"You see, I learned that hay nourishes the soil," she started to explain. "In the beginning, when her method was being tried, initially to overcome the delays of late spring plowing, spoiled bay and manure were piled. on top of the ground as a mulch and plants and seeds were set out in it. At first I added lime to overcome any soil acidity but these natural materials continued to decompose. and became‐partOf the soil making it richer and richer. I. haven't limed in 20 years," she said: f:'For somettme, I sent samples of my soil to the state Cooperative Extension tor testing and it always came back high in everything. I'm not going to lend it in..anymore, if people are'leonVineed..." she mused.

Another advantage of her hay‐mulch system, the ground never gets too dry. 1,11 never water. Why one year when we had a four month drought—remember. pat a few years back—I raised a 51 pound Blue Hubbard squash."

The Ruth Stout vegetable garden ikrould never win a prize in a landscape :award contest. It's kind of a helterskelter with a little bit of everything growing. "It's not much to look at," Miss Stout admits, but inwardly. it's what it's all about for her.

The garden is set high on a meadow knoll and measures about 45X50 feet. It is literally a fortress of defense from nature's raiders—rabbits, possums, raccoons and deer. An outer wire fence is faced down with a moat of black plastic mulch anchored with rocks, boards, etc. "The animals won't try to crawl over it and they just don't realize they could tunnel under," Miss Stout beamed as she explained her foxiness. Inside the first fence are potatoes, asparagus, the cabbage family, carrots, dill and other delectables. In the center of the garden is a huge cage, covered on all sides and top with chicken wire. "It's the only way we can keep the raccoons out of the corn." Both she and her sister love corn.

The garden has no planting plan. It's sort of orderly and Ruth Stout knows where everything is planted, but if volunteer appears from last year, it is allowed to stay. The asparagus kind of planted itself that way and even a few weeds—lambs quarters and purslane—are allowed to grow; they're part of the crop. "Many people don't know how good they taste and they're good for you. Here try some of this," she said as he handed a snippet of purslane for a nibble. She was right, it was tasty.

The whole point of this unusual garden is literally no work. "Just plant and pick," as Ruth Stout phrases it. Everything is very handy. "You see have my own meadow for the hay. have a man cut it for me and then buy back from him the spoiled hay for $1 a bale. (Spoiled hay is just that—spoiled for lifestock feed, moldy perhaps, but fine for gardeners to use as a mulch.)

The price of the hay is part of that $35.75 spent each year for vegetables. "The rest of the money is for cottonseed meal, the only fertilizer I use, plants of tomatoes, peppers, seed potatoes and Spanish onion seedlings and the seed."

To explain her "plant and pick" method, the venerable gardener told how to plant big seeds—corn, peas and beans. "Pull back the mulch and plant the rows by making a furrow. Keep the mulch back until the seeds are well sprouted and then tuck it back around the young plants.

"For fine seed, here let me show you how I do it." She demonstrated with her hand and showed how she pulls back the mulch, traces a line with her finger and carefully sows the seed along the row. "I don't cover it, but pat in or sometimes just walk on it. One of the worst mistakes beginners make is to cover fine vegetable seed too deeply. Keep the mulch away from the row until the young seedlings are well sprouted and growing."

"Want to know howl plant potatoes?", Miss Stout asked with an Impish twinkle, "I buy the seed potatos, cut them into pieces with an eye in each one, put them in a row, throw some hay on top and then you have potatoes. That's all there is to it, We're eating potatoes now, the first ones, I just dig down into the soft soil, and pull off the few that we need and cover the hay back over them."

As to the hay mulch, she has no special pattern of application. Piles of are always there in the garden for use. "I just see that the ground is well covered with hay. If! see a bare spot when I'm in the garden, I just cover it. There is no special time to start. Just make deep enough, six to eight inches. It decomposes."

Another viewpoint of this maverick garden — compost piles. "I'm against them. They are so unnecessary. Why pile everything somewhere and then haul it to where you need it?" Her composting is done on the garden. "All the kitchen garbage, not meat, that would attract rats. I just toss it on the garden and throw some hay on top."

A great story teller, Miss Stout loves this one. "You remember two years back when we had so much rain? Well, it did terrible things to some gardens. I lost all my squash and the corn didn't look too good.

"One afternoon my brother Rex (noted author of the Nero Wolfe mysteries) came over and looked at the corn and told me that too much rain takes nitrogen out of the soil. I told him I had never heard that before. Later one evening‐when I was reading a garden book I found a reference to this and a recommendation to replenish the nitrogen. Know who wrote the book? Ruth Stout!"

Her admonition, "If you write a book, you should read it once in a while." Since the corn episode, Miss Stout now spreads a little cottonseed meal On each row as she plants it. "It is much easier to handle than manure, daintier."

To keep the vegetables year‐round, most of them are fresh frozen, even tomatoes. "The experts say you can't freeze them, they get soft and watery. They get softer if you can them, and the water —who doesn't like tomato juice." The winter squash, onion and potatoes are stored right in the farmhouse kitchen.

Many crops, carrots, turnips, etc. are harvested year‐round. The soft textured soil makes this poisible. "Just two 'weeks ago, we finished the last of the '73 carrots, left in the garden rows. mulch the rows with hay tO prevent the soil from freezing. The carrots taste just as fresh as if we picked them In the middle of the summer."

"I haven't sown the kale or turnips yet. She recalled the advice of her mother, '25th of July, plant turnips, wet or dry.' If they are planted too soon, they don't amount to anything. The same is true of kale and collards. Plant them late, mulch them and they will last all winter."

When asked if she was one of the original woman's lib activists because she,uses her maiden name for authorship, she was quick to respond, "Women's libbers, they bore me. I use my own name on my books so that all my friends back in Kansas will know it was I who had written them."

Born and raised in a Quaker family in Topeka, Kansas, Miss Stout was one of nine children. "We come from a line of longevity, she says. "My brother is 88."

She also attributes her well being to her own outlook, "Thinking has a great deal to do with health. I never overdo things. I accomplish all my gardening before 11 o'clock in the morning. If feel like a nap. 1 take one. I go to bed around 10 P.M. I never feel lonely,"

A summary', of Stoutian philosophy appears in another book, "If You Would Be Happy," which she wrote 12 years ago. It's dedicated, "For everyone under ninety—after that you're on your own."

Ruth Stout loves to talk about the thing dearest to her and there is a constant parade of visitors who come to see for themselves, "But I never let anyone walk into the garden. Why the ground is just too soft and all those visitors would pack it down hard in no time. And I never give any vegetables away. As tempting as it is to say 'Oh won't you please take some of this or that'—why Mary and I would have nothing left to eat."

But she does recall an exception to this rule with another of her stories. "One day I had a couple visiting here and they eyed the vegetables. The husband especially looked' at the Sweet Spanish onions and the tomatoes. He walked over to the tomatoes and said "Oh look what you have here on your tomatoes. He started to hand me a huge green creature. Have you ever seen tomato worm? Well, I was not about to squash that big thing, so I made a deal with him. I told him if he would kill the tomato worm, I'd give him a Spanish Onion. That's the last tomato worm I've seen."

Just as she was saying goodbye to one visitor, a car drove up and out bounded a beaming couple. "Are you Ruth Stout? We're from Jacksonville, Fla. on our way to New Hampshire. We've read and enjoyed all your books. Will you please autograph this one?"

With a gracious, but rather bewildered smile, Ruth Stout greeted the newcomers and was off again on a chat about her favorite subject—easy, no work gardening.