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[Clansgian AT wmconnect.com]

> That last one refers to a book: "The Ruth Stout No
> Work Garden Book".  Is any one familiar with that? 
> 

Although as Gene says, it's a classic, it's also Nihil Sub Sole Novum.  It 
might have been new stuff in its time, but it's common knowledge and common 
practice now of days.

My gardens make use of a very great lot of mulch from a number of sources 
(sawdust, leaves, leaf mold, manure, stall bedding, hay, grass clippings, 
etc).  
As far as hay and manure introducing weeds, they do.  The trick, so says I, 
is 
to treat the new weeds the same as you did the old.  Six inches of old hay is 
a good mulch and keeps the weeds from germinating. But as it rots, it BECOMES 
the source of weeds so you simply add six more inches.  As long as new much 
is added all the time, all the weeds meet the same fate.

Also, like Toni I believe it was, all the beds are turned from time to time.  
The 'nobody turns anything in nature' philosphy not withstanding, the 
benefits very greatly outweigh the shortcomings.  I do it with a shovel, the 
beds by 
now offer very little resistance and it is not heavy work.

When an area of the garden falls into disuse and the weeds in the beds and 
paths begin to show, I scoop up about an inch of dirt from the path with a 
shovel and drop it onto the bed.  Then I cap the bed with manure, grass 
mowings, 
etc. and all the green sprouting weeds rot instantly.

Another mulch management technique is to put down several inches of seed 
bearing mulch (hay or manure) and then cover it with a layer of sterile mulch 
(green grass mowings, sawdust).  

All but a very few vegetable plants are transplanted and many of them more 
than once.  Seedbeds planted in, say, kale germinate along with the weeds.  
When 
the plants have the first true leaves, the soil is crumbled and the kale 
plants lifted out of the soil and germinated weeds.  The bed where the 2" 
tall 
plants are transplanted is hoed 1" deep to disturb the germinating weeds and 
the 
transplants have an advantage.  Then when the transplants are 3" tall and 
their companion weeds are just about to  catch up with them, they are lifted 
and 
put into a freshly hoed bed 8" apart in all directions.  An inch of mulch is 
put round hte plants which doesn't do away with the weeds, but gives the kale 
a 
tremendous head start and advantage.  As the vegetables get taller, more 
mulch 
is added.  The weeds fall farther and farther behind and the vegetables get 
taller and taller.

Now, if you add 8" of manure at once, the weeds will germinate and you will 
have to deal with them.  In the management I have described, all the new 
manure, unripe compost, and hay added does indeed introduce new weeds, but it 
thwarts and smothers the old ones.  By the time the new ones are ready to 
establish 
themselves, the next layer of mulch squoshes them.  

I have had such success with this that I have modified my way of planting 
most things to accommodate it.  For instance, instead of planting bush beans 
6" 
or 8" apart in every direction as I once did, I plant three or four seeds 
together 10" to 12" apart in all directions to make it easier to mulch 
between the 
clumps until the foliage makes it unnecessary.   </HTML>