Trying the "Ruth Stout" method of gardening

While meandering through the labyrinth that is Youtube the other day, I came across a video by a couple who grew a considerable amount of potatoes with almost no work.  It after watching it, they referenced a methodology that was developed by Ruth Stout in which you continually add mulch on top of existing soil and keep planting on top of itself.  In that manner, you continually have little/no weeds, replenish nutrients, and have to do very little work as far as tilling or weeding.  They also did a video on that approach.

I discussed it, showed the first (potato) video to Wifey and we decided to give it a shot.

In the video, they laid out a grid of chunks (appears to be 2"+ thicknesses) of straw bales to their field in the fall and let the straw rot.  In the spring they took the rotted hay, fluffed it up and pulled sections apart in areas and laid out seed potatoes.  Once their potatoes were laid out, they covered them up again.

Note: I learned that although the terms are often used interchangeably, there is a difference between hay and straw.  Hay is dried field grasses where straw is hay that has had the seed pods largely/entirely removed.  Hay is often consumed by animals and straw is bedding.

I took a trip to the local Ace hardware and bought 4 small bales of straw.  Wifey and I then laid them down in a grid to rot for the remainder of the winter until it gets to be potato planting time.

Seeds are started!

It's almost become tradition for Wifey and I to start getting stir crazy for the outdoors right about this time.  Although Winter has technically just begun, we long for our gardening, landscaping, and doing work in the orchard.  This year is no different!

A few days ago, Wifey and I took stock of the leftover seed from the last few years, discussed what we want to grow in the garden this year, and started looking through the seed catalogs from Southern Exposure Seed Exchange and Baker Creek. 

Yesterday I got the bright idea to start some herbs.  I took two 4-plug leftover plant trays from something or other, added in some of our potting soil, and went searching for herbs.  I didn't find all that I was hoping for and ended up planting 4 plugs of basil.  That still left me with another 4-plug tray loaded with potting soil, but no seeds in residence.  Unacceptable!

After anther search, I came up with the bright idea (if I do say so myself) to plant some peppers.  We have never had any luck with bell peppers (hot peppers seem to do fine, though) so I figured we might as well do an early planting of peppers to see if we can do some experiments to get some to actually produce.