How to have a green thumb without an aching back - by Ruth Stout (Paperback)

About the Book

Ruth Stout's classic How to Have a Green Thumb is a welcoming and trusted advisor for any gardener seeking a natural, bountiful harvest.

Book Synopsis

Without a tractor and with an impatience to get her seeds planted for the season, Ruth Stout stumbled upon an unorthodox way to sow her garden: rather than plowing the earth, she would simply make her seedling rows in between mounds of compost she had lain over the previous fall and winter.

In her endearing and folksy voice, Stout tells the tale of her move in 1930 from New York City to a 55-acre farm in the rural Connecticut hamlet of Poverty Hollow. With little experience and a cast of helpers and advisors, she tells the story of a woman's toiling, making mistakes, and learning the pastime of gardening. In the spring of 1944, she experienced an epiphany that would chart a new method of planting: "Throw away your spade and hoe."

How to Have a Green Thumb is an infectious narrative of lessons learned and practical advice for anyone not afraid to get their hands dirty in pursuit of a bountiful and healthy garden. It provides practical advice on dealing with pests, a catalogue of the common vegetable varieties and flowering plants, and, of course, mulching. It is a book that any gardener will treasure and refer to again and again.

This book is also available from Echo Point Books as a hardcover (ISBN 1648373526).

Review Quotes

"...really delights while it instructs. A labour-saving book explaining how much of the back-ache of gardening can be eliminated by an intelligent policy of mulching and the use of natural rather than artificial methods of cultivation." -The Book Exchange

"This is a completely captivating little book about a woman's deep love and respect for the soil and its produce. Her devotion and care to growing things is wonderful to read about and it kind of makes you all warm and happy inside."-The Hartford Times

". . . offers hope to people whose time and energy are limited."-Dorothy S. Manks, Horticulture

". . . Miss Stout's chief delight is in proving the experts wrong and testing short cuts-mulching portulaca, growing gardenias in shade, renewing strawberry beds without buying new plants, and especially mulching with spoiled hay from the neighbors. She has had fun; and the reader shares it."-Lewis Gannett., New York Herald Tribune

"It isn't often that we get this excited about a new book . . . useful information on all phases of vegetable and flower growing . . . well documented. "- Organic Gardening and Farming