GATHERING HAY FOR MY RUTH STOUT GARDEN BEDS
Today I was gathering the supplies I needed to make a few more Ruth Stout garden beds and freshen up the ones I already have. if you've never heard of Ruth Stout or her gardening Style let me quickly try to explain it.
The Ruth Stout style of gardening is very simple, very little work and I have found the results to be quite good.
Ruth figured out that by laying a thick layer of hay on the ground and letting it sit there and decompose you didn't need to till the ground or plow it. The thick layer of hay will smother out the weeds and when you need to plant just move the hay aside plant your seeds and lightly cover them. The decomposing hay is all the fertilizer you need.
Be sure that you use hay in this process. I would not recommend using straw. Straw is the stocks from one crop like wheat. Hay is multiple different plants. The decomposing hay is what is feeding the microbial life and adding fertilization to the ground. If you are feeding life only one type of food like straw it will not be as healthy or as strong as if you're feeding it multiple different types of foods like hay.
The way I gather my hay is by using the only piece of machinery I have on the farm. My little zero-turn Craftsman lawn mower. I wait till the grass gets kind of long but before it goes to seed to cut it. After the initial cut with a lawn mower I push all the cut grass AKA hay with the mower into rows. When the hay is in rows I go through with a rake and rake it into piles. Once it's in piles I put it in my little red wheelbarrow and take it to the New Garden Spot or freshen up the old ones.
This year we grew all kinds of different produce in these Ruth Stout inspired garden beds. We grew and are growing tomatoes, cucumbers, zucchini, lettuce, cabbage, potatoes, onions and garlic. I hope this inspires you to start stetting up your own simple and easy Ruth Stout garden beds and grow some food.
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Looks fun to me! :) and Congratulations, your post had been chosen by curators of eSteem Encouragement program. Feel free to join and reach us via Discord channel if you have any questions or would like to contribute.
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Now there's an idea!
If you need wood chips, I found a site where you can sign up on a list that let's local arborists know they can dump em in your yard. It's called chipdrop.com
I signed up for chip drop. But I believe I live too far in the country because nobody hit me up with a drop
Womp.
I think I may put a paid drop if I don't get any hits in a couple weeks. They said it increases your chances, which makes sense.