I have a love for all things plants.
From flowers, to herbs, to veggies, I love being able to get my hands in the dirt and create something in my yard. It helps me to feel connected to the earth and what is around me. That being said, I really don’t like having to plant hundreds of tiny veggie seeds. It hurts my back, and it is very time consuming. I have four kids that are five and under and I have to use my time wisely! So that doesn’t include spending hours planting hundreds of tiny vegetable seeds, but I NEED to plant those veggie seeds to cut down on our grocery bill during the year, because in case you missed it, we have 4 kiddos to feed. Not to mention that once the are planted and sprouting, I do absolutely love tending to all of the little plants.
The lazy Ruth Stout method
So I came up with a lazy way of gardening! As I was out planting parsnip seeds the other day, first seeds of the season, I was so excited to be able to get my hands back in the dirt. If you don’t know parsnip seeds are tiny… like really tiny and it was taking me way too long to plant one bed of those tiny little seeds and my old lady back was already killing me. Then I remembered that cabbage seeds were the same size, and so were turnip seeds. I needed to plant 4 beds of each. It was going to take me a while if I kept going at the rate I was. I was not looking forward to it. Then I remembered that last year, we planted our potatoes in the Ruth Stout method, and they did GREAT!
How The Ruth Stout method works
If you are not familiar with the Ruth Stout style of gardening, you basically plant in straw bales. You set the bales out a couple months in advance, so they have time to sit out in the weather and start to decompose, then you just put your plants right into the straw. It is so easy and best of all, it is low maintenance. It really keeps the weeds at bay. Here is a really good video explaining in better detail.
So, when Aaron and I put the garden to bed last year, we took some straw and black gold (manure) from Betsey’s barn and put it on all of the garden beds so that it would break down and put all of the great nutrients back into the soil for the garden the following year.
I had a thought, when I was planting cabbage, what if I just scraped back what was left of the nutritious compost we put down, scattered some seeds about, and covered them back up with the left over compost?!!! That would save me so much time, and my back!
So that’s exactly what I did! It was soooo simple! I Had my 3 beds of cabbage planted in no time! I felt like I was on top of my game that day! Now, time will tell whether or not this will work, but I really see no reason as to why this will not work. I will probably have to thin the plants out once they start coming up, but I think that will be ok. The time it saved me planting them like this is worth having to thin them out.
So, recap for fast seed planting
- One: Put your garden to bed the at the end of the season with straw and cow poo. If you don’t have your own source of fresh cow poo, I’m sure you can find a farmer that is willing to sell it, or even give it to you!
- Two: put said poo and straw on your garden beds and let it sit over winter
- Three: The following spring, gentle rake back the straw that is left, put your seeds on the dirt, and cover them back up with the straw.
- Four: sit back and be amazed by how easy that was and wait for the seeds to pop up that beautiful greenery!
That’s IT!!!
How easy is that! on your way to growing your own food in no time and less work!
I hope this makes your gardening work a bit easier for you! Thanks so much for stopping buy and checking it out!
Happy gardening ~ Sam
Check out this post on Simple seed saving for beginners.