Garden expert and lovable eccentric Ruth Stout once said: "At the age of 87 I grow vegetables for two people the year-round, doing all the work myself and freezing the surplus. I tend several flower beds, write a column every week, answer an awful lot of mail, do the housework and cooking; and never do any of these things after 11 o'clock in the morning "

Ruth writes, "A dentist in Pennsylvania and a doctor in Oregon have both written me that they keep a copy of my garden book in their waiting rooms. Or try to; the dentist has had twenty-three copies stolen, the doctor, sixteen."...

"Guess who's coming to dinner?"

With Ruth Stout, you never knew Would it be sweet-tempered temperance activist, Carrie Nation, who smashed the windows of illegal saloons with a hatchet? Would it be her younger brother, Rex Stout, who finagled his way onto Teddy Roosevelt's presidential yacht and later became famous for his Nero Wolfe mysteries? Would it be Dr. Poulin, the famous hypnotist? Simple-living guru Scott Nearing? Not to mention friends, neighbors, starving artists, and refugees.

Ruth Stout tells the story of her life in terms of who showed up for...

While everyone loves eating fresh garden produce, not everyone has the time and energy to create a productive garden. But what if growing delicious crops required hardly any effort? What if you could have succulent strawberries, perfect peas, and terrific tomatoes without needing to touch a spade, hoe, or plow—without needing to worry about irrigating, spraying, sowing a cover crop, weeding, cultivating, or building a compost pile? If that sounds good, the Stout System is the answer for you

Ruth Stout has shown tens of thousands of gardeners how to greatly reduce their...

While everyone loves eating fresh garden produce, not everyone has the time and energy to create a productive garden. But what if growing delicious crops required hardly any effort? What if you could have succulent strawberries, perfect peas, and terrific tomatoes without needing to touch a spade, hoe, or plow—without needing to worry about irrigating, spraying, sowing a cover crop, weeding, cultivating, or building a compost pile? If that sounds good, the Stout System is the answer for you

Ruth Stout has shown tens of thousands of gardeners how to greatly reduce their gardening...

Simple-living advocate Ruth Stout, author of Gardening Without Work, believed that life just doesn't have to be so hard In If You Would Be Happy, she once again helps you find the sense (and humor) amid all the nonsense that life offers, and find simplicity amid the complex rough and tumble of life.

She says: "It is happiness, not perfection, we're concerned with here, and they're not necessarily even related." "Our activities are successful insofar as they are giving us real satisfaction." "Any experience, trivial or important, is likely to give us more pleasure...