The Ruth Stout No-Work Gardening Method

When living in the Midwest wheat was a plentiful crop and many times I was given wheat straw by my local farmer neighbors when it had gotten wet in the field before it could be bailed. So with a plentiful supply I used it for exactly this. I mulched my gardens with it. Ruth Stout also lived in the Midwest US so it makes sense that straw was plentiful. 

Couple of tips. Put it through your chicken yard first. This allows the chickens to clean out the weed seeds prior to it going on your garden and benefits that they also get the wheat that is left in the straw so it doesn't sprout in your garden. You can get some pretty good weed crops even with straw that may be difficult to get rid of. 

After the garden is finished the chickens can also clean out overwintering bugs.

I have read some reports of complaints of chemical residue in the straw contaminating gardens. I have not seen research so cannot say but I suppose it is possible depending on what the farmer is spraying. 

Now that I do not live in the Midwest straw costs $5 for a small bale. At that price it is no longer feasible to use straw year round as a mulch.  I can in most cases get wood chips for free in this area when the utility company trims tree limbs etc... 

Another con to the method for us is that it draws critters. Snakes and voles were a real problem. 

Does it work? Yes, but there are many methods out there for covering the soil with different coverings. They all work when you enrich the soil it works. When the soil is covered with horticultural wood chips it is the "Back to Eden" method. It uses by products of the forestry or landscaping industry. When the soil is covered with straw it is the " Ruth Stout" method. Wheat straw is a by product of the  grain industry. When it is layered with different materials it is the "Lasagna" method. In Louisiana the soil is covered with rice hulls or sugar cane peeling and stalks ground up. I have even seen pine straw used. 

What does Aus grow that has a by product that can cover the soil ??





 

DD: We have good access to straws (including pea straw), composted sea grass, grain husk and manure from the horse racing stables.

Other areas would have access to sugar cane mulch and possibly forestry waste.

Almost all local government rubbish dumps seem to run some kind of mulching operation to keep 'green waste' out of landfill pits. They sell that mulch cheap but it tends to be full of plastic bits and too much hard wood.

I am toying with idea of using gravel mulch in my new raised beds as an experiment.

If you're not aware, be cautious about grass clippings. Some types of grass, especially lawn varieties, have very waxy leaves. As they rot away they leave the wax (which breaks down much, much more slowly) behind in the topsoil and over several years your sandy soil may end up being water repellent. This problem does not occur on soils with a bit of clay in them.

Water repellent sands are a big agricultural problem in Australia. They correlate to areas that, before clearing for farming, grew scrubby forests of certain species of Eucalypt which left behind thousands of years of wax deposition. Trying to get even, reliable crop germination is a real challenge on those soils.
Farmers spend large sums of money to mine and spread clay over these areas to fix them or Haul huge rippers behind 500hp+ tractors to dredge up clay from subsoils where ther are within 2ft of the surface.

One of the best clays for improving soil is Bentonite kitty litter. It has great nutrient and moisture holding properties. You don't need much of it to make a sandy soil much more productive, and if applied to dry sand, it mixes in easily with a rotary hoe or a rake-hoe.