I've read this book numerous times, and enjoyed it every single time. I'm a garden writer myself (Allergy-Free Gardening) and I always appreciate good garden writing. For my money, no one did it any better than Ruth Stout. Her writing is useful, practical, easy to follow, sensible, fun, often funny, and is a joy to read. She was quite the gardener, and went about gardening in an intelligent and creative way, with her eyes wide open to things that worked, or those that didn't.
Ruth Stout really ought to be known as the "Mother of Mulch," since she was such a strong advocate for this practice. This book would make a fine addition to anyone's personal gardening library, and would also make an excellent gift for a friend who loves gardening. If you grow vegetables and flowers and have never read this gem, treat yourself to a copy. Remarkably good!

Ruth Stour's book is so incredibly conversational that I feel that I've been invited over for tea and weeding. It's broken up in several different essays and fun to read cover to cover. Despite the fact that it's more of a novel than a how-to book, you'll want to run out to your garden and try out a few things after each page. Today, she's well into her 90's -- a testament to how beneficial gardening is both for the garden and the gardner!

I found a copy of this at a thrift store for 25 cents! It's full of amazing facts and methods. For instance, she mulches with 6-8" of hay-which she decribes as manure before the cow removes the nutrients from it! She also asks why should you til the soil in your garden every year if you dont til it in your rose beds or around trees? The hay mulch attracts earthworms which enrich and til the soil for you. She explains everything in a very down-to-earth and even at times humorous way.This was absolutely the best quarter investment I have ever made.

My mom gave me this book ages ago, which is why I have a copy (it's been out of print for a while). I finally decided to read it this winter, and have been enjoying it immensely. It's based on previously published articles, so you won't find all the information on asparagus all on one page. But her writing style is clear and easy, and so engaging and entertaining that you don't mind reading it from cover to cover. Also, there is a handy index in the back, so that you can always just go to the pages that have the useful info on any particular item. I liked the book so much that I decided to order Ruth's No Work Gardening for the Aging, Busy, and Indolent. It just arrived today and I can't wait to start reading it!

With arthritis, degenerative disk disease and spinal stenosis, I may very well be spending my last years in a wheelchair. With Ms. Stout's method of gardening, I will never go hungry. It is possible to plant a few plants (or harvest a few things) every day in the very early morning hours when I can stand to be outside. When my kids come see me, they lay a few bales of hay (or straw) around here and there so I can grab a handful and throw it on anything growing without permission. She was a wise old woman (with a great sense of humor)!!

Ruth Stout knows what she is doing but I sensed a tone of irritation in her book with people who need information on what to do. Most of the book is relating her experiences without any real information. She talks about a fence her brother built to keep out raccoons but yet no details about what this fence was or how it was constructed. This isn't a book for beginning gardeners. I was dissapointed with the books lack of real information. If you want information on how to garden this is not the book to read. If you want to read about a gardeners experiences and how irritated she gets with beginners this is the book you want.

Ruth is pretty much a one-note song (mulch, Mulch, MULCH) but it's nice to know that I'm not alone in using tons of hay to mulch my gardens. This isn't literature and Ruth is, at times, a bit too folksy but given that my method of gardening isn't much different, I would probably write a lot like her. It turns out I've been a Ruth devotee for a while without even knowing it.

If you are not using mulch in your garden/landscape and are tired of weeding and looking at hard, baked dirt, you owe it to yourself to give Ruth a shot. Though written in 1960, the book is still relevant and useful (except the parts about parsnips and turnips :-).

One of my favorite books on gardening. Humorous and folksy. Her methods work extremely well. Save yourself lots of sweat in the garden. Read this book.