The Green Truth: No Work & All Play Garden

How would you like to spend less time and money on weeding, watering, and fertilizing your garden this year, and more time enjoying it? No, I haven't been eating the mysterious mushrooms growing in my yard...All this and more can be yours with a mulched garden using the Ruth Stout method. Ruth Stout (1884-1980) is known as the person who made the magic of mulch famous among gardeners. This method is fairly easy to start small and build upon. Not only can you often find freely available materials for mulch, but this method could actually save you money, by having to water and fertilize less!

The Basics:

Find a source of spoiled/moldy hay or regular hay, straw, leaves, pine needles, sawdust, weeds, or garbage (any vegetable matter that rots) to use as your mulch. You can save your own leaves from fall cleanup, or get someone else's for free on craigslist. Here are a few links for leaves in the Richmond, VA area: http://richmond.craigslist.org/zip/1656071675.html
http://richmond.craigslist.org/zip/1646916697.html
http://richmond.craigslist.org/zip/1639013853.html

Also, Dominion Power has shredded plant material (twigs, leaves, etc.) available for free with free delivery in batches of 8-10 cubic yards (will cover 320-400 sq. ft. 8" deep) . http://www.dom.com/dominion-virginia-power/customer-service/your-service/shredded-plant-material.jsp

Many city dumps offer free mulch as well, although I doubt they deliver for free. East Richmond road landfill has free mulch, and will likely help you load it if you call ahead at (804) 646-4706. For spoiled hay you could try calling any hay supplier (many are on Craigslist) or large horse stables to see if they have spoiled hay unfit for animals (but perfect for gardens!)

You can used any of the above materials as mulches alone, or in combination. If using bark/tree/leaf mulch I would combine it with some other material like hay, because it may be pretty acidic on its own and some plants won't like this. Save your kitchen scraps (vegetables, egg shells, etc., no meat) to tuck under your mulch piles. No more composting necessary. For a 50' x 50' garden you will need about 25-50 bales of hay to get started (1-2 bales/100 sq. ft.), and should consider have another 25-50 bales in reserve to add as the existing hay composts over time.
If your soil is poor, consider adding some compost, horse manure, or chicken manure first. Try to get enough for 1/2"-2" inches thick. Horse manure is usually available for free on craigslist - delivery may be available for a fee. Word of caution: do not use manure from horses that feed on pastures where herbacides are used. This can poison your soil and prevent plants from growing for up to 2 years. Aged (at least 2-6 months) manure is best, because most disease-causing organisms and weed seeds the animals have eaten have been destroyed by then. Here are some craigslist links for manure in the Richmond, VA area: http://fredericksburg.craigslist.org/zip/1637503451.html
http://richmond.craigslist.org/zip/1653678745.html
http://richmond.craigslist.org/zip/1633769715.html
http://richmond.craigslist.org/zip/1632186079.html
When first starting out, fresh hay, leaves, and grass clippings may use up more nitrogen from the soil than they give back. You can either leave these mulching materials out in the rain for a few months before putting them on your garden, or supplement the soil with cottonseed, soybean meal, or another organic fertilizer underneath the mulch, whether or not you add manure.
Mulch between garden rows, and around plants once they're established. Start with about 8 inches thick of hay or another material. Rains and/or foot traffic will eventually compact this to 2-3 inches. If weeds start to come up, just throw on more mulch. When you want to plant seeds, push apart a section of mulch and keep it aside until the plants are well established, then push the mulch back around the plants. You can plant potatoes by putting them on top of the soil, and covering them with 8" of hay! This will allow you to harvest a few potatoes at a time without killing the plant.
Using this method you should be able to water a lot less and still have enough moisture retained to allow plants to thrive. Ruth Stout claimed that after mulching year-round for several years she no longer needed to water her garden at all! But this would probably depend on the specific climate you live in. After mulching year-round for a few years, your soil will no longer need to be worked, tilled, or hoed, and will remain soft and pliable.
Want to plant a new garden without digging the first year? You could try the no-dig method (links below). I imagine that your yields won't be huge the first few years until successive plantings loosen up the soil deep down. But if anyone has tried this method with great success the first year, let me know!http://www.no-dig-vegetablegarden.com/build-a-garden.html
http://video.about.com/organicgardening/Build-a-No-Dig-Garden.htm