I was just clicking on interesting subjects and saw the one by percheronsthree about Ruth Stout posted on Sept. 3. I added this info but I guess nobody goes back that far to read but me.
Here it is if anybody is still interested.

Hi everyone,
I have been reading these forums for a while but had never entered one.
I am also a Ruth Stout fan. I would read her books even if I didn't garden. I have three: "It's a Woman's World"(1960), "The Ruth Stout No-Work Garden Book"(1971),and "Gardening Without Work"(1961). I found them in the used book section of barnesandnoble.com.

"Ruth was born in Kansas in 1884, the sister of once famous detective-story writer Rex Stout. She was unmarried until the age of 55 when she settled in rural Connecticut (on Poverty Hollow Road) with her husband and began gardening."(condensed from the foreword by Charles Elliot in "Gardening Without Work" reprint in 1998)
She died in 1980 at age 96.

tomatomama zone 6 East TN

Great info!

Also other Ruth Stout fans like Patricia Lanza, has taken her no-till ideas to the next level, by writing her books on "Lasagne Gardening".

Now some folks like me have taken it to many more creative levels, by combining trench composting, lasagne garden beds, with legume/grain cover crops, and using aerated compost teas as biostimulants and soil drenches for these no-till beds.

Yes, I had been back, to read this topic on Ruth Stout. It made me get off the computer and dig out my old dusty books!
Thank you!
That one older message got me hooked again!
I even droped by the "Library" to see what I could find there!

So, R. Stout.........
Who is useing the Stout System of mulching, and how is it going for you?
She tells you to have about 8in. on top of your garden, and plant down in soil. Have any of you just planted on top, in the mulch?

I have only done this in a very small way. But I would like to try it in my BIG garden next year. To make it work for me, I will have to move alot of old hay. My garden is very big, and the weeds have got away from me.

I would love to hear from anyone doing this method. How you do it and how it is going for you.
Thanks.

I'm doing no-till methods on over an acre of garden beds, on my 3 acre farm home. I use more legume/grain green manures to replace areas where I run out of good mature homemade compost. I'm also blessed to be near the local equine clinic, where I have access to an unlimited amount of tons of horse manure/sawdust for my hot compost piles, or as an organic mulch for my no-till beds.

I mow down and chop up my green manure crops with my swing blade, scythe, and hoe. I guess if you have a really large garden, a weed eater would work for no-till gardeners. I also smother a lot of my cover crops with even more mature or immature homemade compost.

I also use a lot of aerated compost teas on my garden beds and in my compost piles, in order to drastically increase the beneficial aerobic microbes and earthworms in my piles and in my soil.