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

Adopt the Revolutionary Non-Plow Method of GardeningAs Featured in The New Yorker

Without a tractor and with an impatience to get her seeds planted for the season, Ruth Stout stumbled upon an unorthodox way to sow her garden: rather than plowing the earth, she would simply make her seedling rows in between mounds of compost she had lain over the previous fall and winter.

In her endearing and folksy voice, Stout tells the tale of her move in 1930 from New York City to a 55-acre farm in the rural Connecticut hamlet of Poverty Hollow. With little experience and a cast of helpers and advisors, she tells the story of a woman's toiling, making mistakes, and learning the pastime of gardening. In the spring of 1944, she experienced an epiphany that would chart a new method of planting: "Throw away your spade and hoe."

How to Have a Green Thumb is an infectious narrative of lessons learned and practical advice for anyone not afraid to get their hands dirty in pursuit of a bountiful and healthy garden. It provides practical advice on dealing with pests, a catalogue of the common vegetable varieties and flowering plants, and, of course, mulching. It is a book that any gardener will treasure and refer to again and again.

This book is also available from Echo Point Books as a hardcover (ISBN 1648373526).

Best known for her no-work garden books, Ruth Stout is an American author. Frustrated by traditional techniques and practices, Ruth simply planted seeds and waited to see what happened. Eventually, she determined that thick mulch was the best method for a low-maintenance, organic garden. Ruth wrote several books and had a long-running series of articles in Organic Gardening and Farming magazine on her gardening methods. She left the copyright to How to Have a Green Thumb Without an Aching Back to Plan International USA, a humanitarian assistance and international development organization focused on girls' rights. Visit www.planusa.org to learn more about their work in more than 80 countries.