Ruth Imogen Stout (June 14, 1884 – August 22, 1980) was an American author best known for her "No-Work"
gardening
Gardening is the practice of growing and cultivating plants as part of horticulture. In gardens, ornamental plants are often grown for their flowers, foliage, or overall appearance; useful plants, such as root vegetables, leaf vegetables, fruits ...
books and techniques.
Early and mid-life
Ruth Imogen Stout
was born June 14, 1884, in
Girard, Kansas
Girard is a city in and the county seat of Crawford County, Kansas, United States. As of the 2020 census, the population of the city was 2,496.
History
Girard was founded in the spring of 1868, in opposition to Crawfordsville, and named ...
, the fifth child of
Quaker
Quakers are people who belong to a historically Protestant Christian set of Christian denomination, denominations known formally as the Religious Society of Friends. Members of these movements ("theFriends") are generally united by a belie ...
parents John Wallace Stout and Lucetta Elizabeth Todhunter Stout.
Her younger brother
Rex Stout
Rex Todhunter Stout (; December 1, 1886 – October 27, 1975) was an American writer noted for his detective fiction. His best-known characters are the detective Nero Wolfe and his assistant Archie Goodwin, who were featured in 33 novels and ...
, also an author, was famous for the
Nero Wolfe
Nero Wolfe is a brilliant, obese and eccentric fictional armchair detective created in 1934 by American mystery writer Rex Stout. Wolfe was born in Montenegro and keeps his past murky. He lives in a luxurious brownstone on West 35th Street in Ne ...
detective stories.
She later claimed to accompany
Carrie A. Nation
Caroline Amelia Nation (November 25, 1846June 9, 1911), often referred to by Carrie, Carry Nation, Carrie A. Nation, or Hatchet Granny, was a radical member of the temperance movement, which opposed alcohol before the advent of Prohibition. Nat ...
in a 'joint hatchetation' where the saloon was smashed up as a protest against public sale of alcohol. Nation was arrested, but Ruth Stout, a 16 year old was not, though doing more damage. Later, on March 9, 1965, she went on ''
I've Got a Secret
''I've Got a Secret'' is an American panel game show produced by Mark Goodson and Bill Todman for CBS television. Created by comedy writers Allan Sherman and Howard Merrill, it was a derivative of Goodson-Todman's own panel show, ''What's My Line ...
'' to elaborate on the account.
Stout moved to
New York when she was 18 and was employed at various times as a baby nurse, a
bookkeeper, a secretary, a business manager, and a factory worker. She was a lecturer and coordinated lectures and debates, and she owned a small tea shop in
Greenwich Village
Greenwich Village ( , , ) is a neighborhood on the west side of Lower Manhattan in New York City, bounded by 14th Street to the north, Broadway to the east, Houston Street to the south, and the Hudson River to the west. Greenwich Village ...
and worked for a fake
mind-reading act.
['']Bridgeport Sunday Post
The ''Connecticut Post'' is a daily newspaper located in Bridgeport, Connecticut. It serves Fairfield County and the Lower Naugatuck Valley. Municipalities in the Post's circulation area include Ansonia, Bridgeport, Darien, Derby, Easton, F ...
'', March 30, 1958, section B-four.[Masters, A. (1955, August 31). "She Does Not Plow, Neither Does She Weed-But The Garden Grows". ''Waterbury Sunday Republican'', p.22.]
In 1923, she accompanied fellow
Quakers
Quakers are people who belong to a historically Protestant Christian set of denominations known formally as the Religious Society of Friends. Members of these movements ("theFriends") are generally united by a belief in each human's abil ...
to
Russia
Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia, Northern Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the ...
to assist in famine relief.
She married Fred Rossiter in June 1929 at age 45.
Rossiter, the son of an American businessman, was born in Germany in 1882. His family relocated to New York City in 1894.
[''The Bridgeport Post'', November 26, 1960, p. 16.] In March 1930, the couple moved to a farm in Poverty Hollow, Redding Ridge, on the outskirts of
Redding,
Connecticut
Connecticut () is the southernmost state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It is bordered by Rhode Island to the east, Massachusetts to the north, New York to the west, and Long Island Sound to the south. Its cap ...
.
Rossiter, a
Columbia-trained
psychologist
A psychologist is a professional who practices psychology and studies mental states, perceptual, cognitive, emotional, and social processes and behavior. Their work often involves the experimentation, observation, and interpretation of how indi ...
, followed his passion for
wood turning
Woodturning is the craft of using a wood lathe with hand-held tools to cut a shape that is symmetrical around the axis of rotation. Like the potter's wheel, the wood lathe is a simple mechanism that can generate a variety of forms. The operator ...
and subsequently became known for his wooden bowls.
Stout decided to try her luck at gardening, and in the spring of 1930, she planted her first garden.
[Brunotts,F. ''UpCountry'', May 1975, p.36-37.]
Roots of the no-work method
During her first year of gardening and for many years after, Ruth employed conventional techniques and practices in her garden with mixed results. She had to wait for someone else to come and
plow
A plough or plow ( US; both ) is a farm tool for loosening or turning the soil before sowing seed or planting. Ploughs were traditionally drawn by oxen and horses, but in modern farms are drawn by tractors. A plough may have a wooden, iron or ...
the fields before she could start. This gentleman was frequently late or delays would occur due to mechanical failures. Wasted time lessened the already short
growing season
A season is a division of the year marked by changes in weather, ecology, and the amount of daylight. The growing season is that portion of the year in which local conditions (i.e. rainfall, temperature, daylight) permit normal plant growth. Whil ...
and tried her patience. Furthermore, the manual labor involved in planting a traditional garden became more than she could handle by herself. In the Spring of 1944, after following the advice of other gardeners who used commercial fertilizers, "poisonous sprays" and plowing for fifteen years, Stout decided that she wasn't going to wait for the plowman, nor was she going to plow on her own. Instead she planted the seeds and covered them, waiting to see what would happen, and discovered surprising success.
The Stout system
Stout claimed that to be successful her system required a ''thick''
mulch
A mulch is a layer of material applied to the surface of soil. Reasons for applying mulch include conservation of soil moisture, improving fertility and health of the soil, reducing weed growth and enhancing the visual appeal of the area.
A m ...
of at least 8 inches. She suggests that if starting a new garden in poor soil it is beneficial to plow manure in the first year and then proceed with the mulch, which is to be left on the garden year-round. After the first year, plowing is no longer needed and
compost pile
Compost is a mixture of ingredients used as plant fertilizer and to improve soil's physical, chemical and biological properties. It is commonly prepared by decomposing plant, food waste, recycling organic materials and manure. The resulting m ...
s are not necessary either - the "compost pile" is maintained in place in the seed beds and garden paths. Mulching material is a combination of what ever one can find at hand, similar to the same materials that one might find in a compost heap.
Later life
As the years progressed, Stout refined her techniques, eventually adopting a year-round
mulch
A mulch is a layer of material applied to the surface of soil. Reasons for applying mulch include conservation of soil moisture, improving fertility and health of the soil, reducing weed growth and enhancing the visual appeal of the area.
A m ...
which virtually eliminated the labor associated with traditional gardening. Her minimalist approach spawned a long-running series of articles in ''Organic Gardening and Farming'' magazine as well as several books. Stout wrote under her maiden name but had changed her legal name to Rossiter after getting married.
Her husband, Fred, died on November 24, 1960, after an extended illness.
Her sister, Mary, who also lived at Poverty Hollow for over 40 years, died on August 20, 1977, at 88.
Works
*Stout, R. (1955). ''How to have a Green Thumb without an Aching Back: A New Method of Mulch Gardening''. New York: Exposition Press, 1955,
*Stout, R. (1958). ''Company Coming: Six Decades of Hospitality, Do-It-Yourself and Otherwise''. New York: Exposition Press, Reprinted b
Norton Creek Press 2012,
*Stout, R. (1960). ''It's a Woman's World''. Garden City, NJ: Doubleday & Co.,Inc.
*Stout, R. (1962). ''If You Would Be Happy''. Garden City, NJ: Doubleday & Co.,Inc. Reprinted b
Norton Creek Press 2016,
*Stout, R. (1963). ''Gardening Without Work: For the Aging, the Busy & the Indolent''. New York: The Devin-Adair Company, Reprinted b
Norton Creek Press 2011,
*Stout, R. & Clemence, R. (1973). ''The Ruth Stout No-Work Garden Book: Secrets of the year-round mulch method''. Emmaus, PA: Rodale Press.
*Stout, R. (1975). ''As We Remember Mother''. New York: Exposition Press.
*Stout, R. (1975). ''I've Always Done It My Way''. New York: Exposition Press.
*Stout, R. ''Don't Forget to Smile: How to Stay Sane and Fit Over Ninety''.
References
External links
*
* Ruth Stout's System for Gardening (from ''Mother Earth News -- March 200
* Ruth Stout And Permanent Hay Mulch (''Mother Earth News, February/March 1999''
* Stout's No-Work Gardening Method Works (''Mother Earth News, Aug./Sept. 2008''
* Ruth Stout's Garden No Plow Procedure (Youtube
{{DEFAULTSORT:Stout, Ruth
1884 births
1980 deaths
20th-century American non-fiction writers
20th-century American women writers
American garden writers
American horticulturists
American women non-fiction writers
Organic gardeners
People from Girard, Kansas
People from Redding, Connecticut
Permaculturalists
Rex Stout
Writers from Kansas