The author has in a quarter century of gardening worked out a method of using mulches. This has cut down her expenditure of hard work and has given her excellent fruit, vegetables and flowers...a new method of mulch gardening.

How to Have a Green Thumb Without an Aching Back: A New Method of Mulch Gardening

Stout, Ruth

Exposition Press

Discusses the fundamentals of gardening, recommends a method of natural mulch gardening, and describes the author's gardening experiences

How to have a green thumb without an aching back: A new method of mulch gardening

Galahad Books

Garden expert and lovable eccentric Ruth Stout once said: "At the age of 87 I grow vegetables for two people the year-round, doing all the work myself and freezing the surplus. I tend several flower beds, write a column every week, answer an awful lot of mail, do the housework and cooking-and never do any of these things after 11 o'clock in the morning!"
Her first book about her no-work gardening system, How to Have a Green Thumb Without an Aching Back, was the kind of book people can't bear to return. She reports, "A dentist in Pennsylvania and a doctor in Oregon have both written me that they keep a copy of my garden book in their waiting rooms. Or try to; the dentist has had twenty-three copies stolen, the doctor, sixteen." 
Gardening Without Work is her second gardening book and is even more entertaining and instructional than the first, so hide it from your friends!
How does it work? "And now let's get down to business. The labor-saving part of my system is that I never plow, spade, sow a cover crop, harrow, hoe, cultivate, weed, water or irrigate, or spray. I use just one fertilizer (cottonseed or soybean meal), and I don't go through the tortuous business of building a compost pile. Just yesterday, under the "Questions and Answers" in a big reputable farm paper, someone asked how to make a compost pile and the editor explained the arduous performance. After I read this I lay there on the couch and suffered because the victim's address wasn't given; there was no way I could reach him.
"My way is simply to keep a thick mulch of any vegetable matter that rots on both my vegetable and flower garden all year round. As it decays and enriches the soil, I add more." 
Regardless of topic, Ruth Stout's writing is always about living a joyous and independent life, and Gardening Without Work is no exception! This book is a treasure for the gardener and a delight even to the non-gardener. First published in 1961, this Norton Creek Press version is an exact reproduction of the original edition. 
Ruth Stout, who, in her teens helped temperance activist Carrie Nation smash saloon windows, could turn any aspect of life into an adventure. She may have been the only woman who both gardened in the nude, wrote a book on happiness (If You Would Be Happy) and one bout the quirky people who came to visit (Company Coming: Six Decades of Hospitality). (Both are available from Norton Creek Press.)
Ruth died in 1980 at the age of 96.

Gardening Without Work: For the Aging, the Busy & the Indolent (Ruth Stout)

Crafts, Hobbies & Home

Gardening & Landscape Design

Norton Creek Press

"Guess who's coming to dinner?" With Ruth Stout, you never knew! Would it be sweet-tempered temperance activist, Carrie Nation, who smashed the windows of illegal saloons with a hatchet? Would it be her younger brother, Rex Stout, who finagled his way onto Teddy Roosevelt's presidential yacht and later became famous for his Nero Wolfe mysteries? Would it be Dr. Poulin, the famous hypnotist? Simple-living guru Scott Nearing? Not to mention friends, neighbors, starving artists, and refugees. Ruth Stout tells the story of her life in terms of who showed up for dinner, and she describes the way she and her husband Fred turned their barn into simple visitor accommodations, turning guests into neighbors and avoiding Ben Franklin's maxim that "fish and visitors stink after three days." The main flaw of this book is that it's too short! Major events like Ruth's work in Russia during the great famine in the Twenties are mentioned only briefly, and when we realize that the New York brownstone that they lived in for a while became Nero Wolfe's house in her brother Rex's detective stories, we'd like fuller descriptions and, if possible, floor plans! But for everything that isn't there, there's something that is, making the book funny and wise and full of surprises, like all of Ruth's writing. Ruth Stout was a beloved advocate of simple living and organic gardening, and her books, including Gardening Without Work, popularized her style of simple living to millions. Company Coming was first published in 1958, and is volume 2 of our Ruth Stout Classics series. Visit http://www.nortoncreekpress.com for more of Ruth Stout's classic books.

Company Coming: Six Decades of Hospitality (Ruth Stout Classics)

Biographies & Memoirs

Professionals & Academics

"Gardening Without Work" is the detailed and helpful guide by Ruth Stout, the American author famous for her lazy gardener approach to gardening. Stout started gardening in 1930, when she was 46, and over the next decade came to understand just how demanding of an activity it can be. In 1944, she decided on a different approach and developed many techniques, including a year-round mulch, that significantly decreased the amount of work needed to garden successfully. Stout published her first work detailing her new methods in 1955, titled "How to Have a Green Thumb without an Aching Back", and began a successful writing career. First published in 1961, "Gardening Without Work" expands upon her mulching methods for easy gardening and details in an easy-to-understand format exactly how to begin and maintain an effortless garden. Written with her trademark humor and wit, Stout shows readers how to get the most out of gardening with less effort and time so that you are free to enjoy both a productive garden and all the fun that life has to offer. This edition is printed on premium acid-free paper.

Gardening Without Work

Digireads.com

Used. Very Good conditions. May have soft reading marks and name of the previous owner.

Gardening Without Work: For the Aging, the Busy and the Indolent

Lyons Pr

Gardening Without Work: For the Aging, the Busy, and the Indolent

While everyone loves eating fresh garden produce, not everyone has the time and energy to create a productive garden. But what if growing delicious crops required hardly any effort? What if you could have succulent strawberries, perfect peas, and terrific tomatoes without needing to touch a spade, hoe, or plow—without needing to worry about irrigating, spraying, sowing a cover crop, weeding, cultivating, or building a compost pile? If that sounds good, the Stout System is the answer for you! Ruth Stout has shown tens of thousands of gardeners how to greatly reduce their gardening workload. Let Ruth (and within a few chapters, she will feel like a friend!) show you how you can rejuvenate the soil and make your fruits, vegetables, and flowers thrive with low-maintenance mulch gardening. Widely renowned as a gardening expert (and sister of the famed mystery writer Rex Stout), Ruth Stout wrote extensively about how to simplify gardening. Her techniques have brought people from all over the world to her garden, and now her advice can help you maximize your garden's output with minimal effort. In addition to the time-saving tips provided, Stout's joyous perspective on life and gardening makes this book a delight―and is a must-read for anyone growing food or flowers.

Echo Point Books & Media

Echo Point Books & Media, LLC

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Stout, Ruth. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Stout, Ruth

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Stout, Ruth. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

How to Have a Green Thumb Without an Aching Back: A New Method of Mulch Gardening

How to have a green thumb without an aching back: A new method of mulch gardening

Gardening Without Work: For the Aging, the Busy & the Indolent (Ruth Stout)

Company Coming: Six Decades of Hospitality (Ruth Stout Classics)

Gardening Without Work

Gardening Without Work: For the Aging, the Busy and the Indolent

Gardening Without Work: For the Aging, the Busy, and the Indolent

Gardening Without Work: For the Aging, the Busy, and the Indolent

How to have a green thumb without an aching back: A new method of mulch gardening

How to have a green thumb without an aching back: A new method of mulch gardening