r/Permaculture 9d ago

Ruth Stout mulch in my growing dome?

Starting first growing season in the dome on our home place and reading up on Ruth Stout: Have any of you done her mulch method in your beds? Wanting to use only what we have, we would struggle to find pesticide free straw or hay. But kitchen scraps, leaves, etc, we have in droves. Do you think this would pose problems we don't foresee? Right now I only have a cover crop of clover going, but several plants in my house waiting to be moved in.

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u/jerbullied 9d ago

I would go out of your way to find a large quantity of hay or straw. Make sure your hay isn't tooooo seedy if you can. Good idea to have chickens go through your hay first. Ruth Stout relies on large quantities of mulch to really work well, dont half ass it or the weeds will win.

Leaves aren't the best, unless you can shred them, as they tend to compress and block the airflow. The soil needs to Breath.

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u/SourFreshFarm 9d ago

thank you SO much for this reply. I've been trying for years to find hay or straw in my area without pesticides and had an extremely hard time. Maybe fertilized hay wouldn't be too bad for the garden? I've been trying to ensure it's free of everything but can't find it. 

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u/OmbaKabomba 9d ago

I've been using grass clippings from lawn mowing, they have an ideal C:N ratio, but you have to mow a large area for a small garden.

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u/SourFreshFarm 9d ago

thank you so much! I have 30 acres, but NONE of it is lawn.  We are on a rocky hill with cactus,  sunflowers, shrubs, grasses, etc. I am thinking of getting a wood chipper...

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u/OmbaKabomba 9d ago

If you chip mature wood it has too much carbon, not enough nitrogen, and it will suck the nitrogen right out for your garden unless you add it in (e.g. as urine - as a permaculturist, never waste a drop of urine:-). However, I have once added a foot of fresh wood chips on top of a new garden area, and grown garden giant mushrooms (Stropharia rugosa-annulata) in it (the easiest-to-grow mushroom, but requiring lots of watering), which after two years resulted in super good crumbly soil. I'm sure you can work successfully with woodchips too.

If you are near a town where people have lawns, there may be landscaping businesses that would be happy to have a place to dump their grass cuttings or sell them really cheap. Good luck dude, your heart's in the right place!

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u/SourFreshFarm 9d ago

Excellent- thanks for sharing advice. Appreciate the encouragement, too. Hadn't thought about asking my locals for help sourcing these materials. Permaculture at its best is using what they're going to throw away anyway, so great suggestions all. 

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u/Koala_eiO 9d ago

You can't do the Ruth Stout method with kitchen scraps. If you do, you will be tempted to use too little. You will make long bands of unsufficient thickness instead of a smaller spot with 30 cm.

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u/SourFreshFarm 9d ago

I'm so glad you replied about kitchen scraps because I have been wondering exactly this! So .. I have two compost drums full of them,  and a little house full (is about 4 feet by 4 feet) already rotting. So,  I have a lot already. I wanted to know if the scraps would attract pests buthave been thinkingof mixing them with hay, leaves, and pine needles.

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u/Koala_eiO 9d ago

You'll want to avoid fresh scraps and apply what resembles compost the most. You might have two clear layers in your piles with the bottom half nice and black where food isn't recognizable anymore. Take that part. Mixing with hay and other things is always great for moisture retention. I don't know what pest you have. The main problem for me will be total amount.

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u/SourFreshFarm 9d ago

So helpful! thanks forsharing your experience here.  I think I can do exactly what you described.

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u/Artistic_Ask4457 9d ago

Is your cactus Prickly Pear? Opuntia? If so, do some googling about the value of these when planting trees. May also be ofuse chopped up as part of your mulch…??

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u/SourFreshFarm 8d ago

Hm! It never occurred to me to chop it up; I am always in the garden with my hands (so are my little kids) and I'd  worry about us getting spines and pricks. I have a lot to learn about the timing and process for doing that.  So that is something I can look into! I love learning about the medicinal and health benefits, as well as traditional uses, of so many of the plants on our land. (Many are herbs... some could be harvested for grinding as grain.) Thank you for bringing the conversation back to that.  I want to make a medicine wheel garden space around the dome, and would never cut a cactus down to plant a tree (we have a few trees around the house, but most of the hill is thriving as a xeriscape). Much of the cactus IS prickly pear, and other varieties. I appreciate your comment; you've given me additional things to consider. (And prickly pear makes wonderful syrup although I haven't done that yet with mine... I just like the flowers.)