Why I Decided To Till My Garden
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Date: 2022-07-18
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Comments and reviews: 15
Nicolas
The nutrient release when you till does not come from mixing in organic matter, it comes from oxidization. You introduce oxygen and this will degrade organic matter and release nutrients, especially nitrogen, as well as CO2. This why tilling is so bad when you do it large scale: you basically destroy your soil slowly but surely. And worms and mushrooms as well of course. And what's even worse is leaving your soil bare, or just using compost as mulch instead of straw/wood chips. This is why I don't like Dowding's method. It's just pure compost, and it doesn't feed soil life. If you put 30 cm of it like Dowding does, ultimately you will feed soil life a bit, but it's gonna take a much longer time than if you used wood chips for example. I do till my soil when it's compacted. I have heavy clay, those soils handle tilling quite OK, especially since I do cover crops in the winter, and put a ton of wood chips. However if you got loamy soils, it is not good to till it. Do it once when you build your beds like you said, and then cover it with mulch. ANd plant it. A lot.
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The nutrient release when you till does not come from mixing in organic matter, it comes from oxidization. You introduce oxygen and this will degrade organic matter and release nutrients, especially nitrogen, as well as CO2. This why tilling is so bad when you do it large scale: you basically destroy your soil slowly but surely. And worms and mushrooms as well of course. And what's even worse is leaving your soil bare, or just using compost as mulch instead of straw/wood chips. This is why I don't like Dowding's method. It's just pure compost, and it doesn't feed soil life. If you put 30 cm of it like Dowding does, ultimately you will feed soil life a bit, but it's gonna take a much longer time than if you used wood chips for example. I do till my soil when it's compacted. I have heavy clay, those soils handle tilling quite OK, especially since I do cover crops in the winter, and put a ton of wood chips. However if you got loamy soils, it is not good to till it. Do it once when you build your beds like you said, and then cover it with mulch. ANd plant it. A lot.
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Rivit
One more thing as the top student in soil science at my university, you definitely have to consider that construction of houses generally destroys the actual natural soil horizons and health of the area, it often removes all organic matter and makes it hard for plants other than grass or weeds to establish themselves easily. Soil takes thousands of years to replenish to a healthy form once it's been dug up, and heavily disturbed. In areas where 'borrow' pits are dug the soil is left barren and native plants often do not do well at all in comparison to the rest of the land because it's stolen so much organic matter. It's important to keep in mind that employing regenerative farming practices such as occasionally tilling are probably going to be the only thing to lead down a path of good harvests and a healthy ecosystem. Remember that when you till to also add a lot of the good stuffs like compost, worm castings, a bit of mulch or some sort of organic matter that allows for aeration to make the soil even better than it was before.
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One more thing as the top student in soil science at my university, you definitely have to consider that construction of houses generally destroys the actual natural soil horizons and health of the area, it often removes all organic matter and makes it hard for plants other than grass or weeds to establish themselves easily. Soil takes thousands of years to replenish to a healthy form once it's been dug up, and heavily disturbed. In areas where 'borrow' pits are dug the soil is left barren and native plants often do not do well at all in comparison to the rest of the land because it's stolen so much organic matter. It's important to keep in mind that employing regenerative farming practices such as occasionally tilling are probably going to be the only thing to lead down a path of good harvests and a healthy ecosystem. Remember that when you till to also add a lot of the good stuffs like compost, worm castings, a bit of mulch or some sort of organic matter that allows for aeration to make the soil even better than it was before.
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handmade
I think this is a good explantation, I actually turned my allotment over once before I understood about no dig, but tbh the soil desperately needed to be levelled it was terribly uneven and just a hazard to walk on. I have the horrendous London sticky clay, I built low raised beds filled those with compost and now I do no dig, I have a few in ground beds and I have gone with no dig for those, and they are gradually improving! Some of my neighbours till and till and till the clay every year and it just ends up being a lot of work for them! the way the London clay is here if you till it all then it forms these use clumps and then it dries and then becomes like boulders, so id say London clay is best not dug especially in our climate that can go from very wet to extremely dry in the space of a few days! However your soil was so dry your climate is dry and that soil looked pretty dead, I think you made the right call!
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I think this is a good explantation, I actually turned my allotment over once before I understood about no dig, but tbh the soil desperately needed to be levelled it was terribly uneven and just a hazard to walk on. I have the horrendous London sticky clay, I built low raised beds filled those with compost and now I do no dig, I have a few in ground beds and I have gone with no dig for those, and they are gradually improving! Some of my neighbours till and till and till the clay every year and it just ends up being a lot of work for them! the way the London clay is here if you till it all then it forms these use clumps and then it dries and then becomes like boulders, so id say London clay is best not dug especially in our climate that can go from very wet to extremely dry in the space of a few days! However your soil was so dry your climate is dry and that soil looked pretty dead, I think you made the right call!
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S.
Great video, clearly & knowledgeably explained. I've also been a long-time fan of Charles' (Sir Charles to me, lol) gardens & methods - spectacular results in a wonderful part of the UK. The science of soil life, just like that of the microbiome in the gut, is mind-blowing & humbling - an epiphany! I marvel at the wonder of it all every time I go out into my garden.
These days I grow most of my veggies in giant tubs (I'm 76 now) & use thick cardboard underneath to keep the weeds down & feed the earthworms - but we have terraced beds on one side of the plot for the more leggy plants & use the no-dig method there. It took me at least 2 decades to convince my ex-farmer husband to let me give it a try. Three more decades later I think he's finally convinced.
Kevin, may your 69 garden seasons be joyful & bountiful - & may you continue to inspire!
Blessings from Canada, Barb
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Great video, clearly & knowledgeably explained. I've also been a long-time fan of Charles' (Sir Charles to me, lol) gardens & methods - spectacular results in a wonderful part of the UK. The science of soil life, just like that of the microbiome in the gut, is mind-blowing & humbling - an epiphany! I marvel at the wonder of it all every time I go out into my garden.
These days I grow most of my veggies in giant tubs (I'm 76 now) & use thick cardboard underneath to keep the weeds down & feed the earthworms - but we have terraced beds on one side of the plot for the more leggy plants & use the no-dig method there. It took me at least 2 decades to convince my ex-farmer husband to let me give it a try. Three more decades later I think he's finally convinced.
Kevin, may your 69 garden seasons be joyful & bountiful - & may you continue to inspire!
Blessings from Canada, Barb
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Rebecca
Thank you for this, you convinced me to give one-till a try! I'm a rural gardener with a lot of space that no one has gardened in but my soil is like a brick (seriously, you need a pickaxe to get into it when it's dry) and early last winter I started some no-till lasagna beds that are doing well, but you've convinced me to try tilling in some areas and see what happens - it'll be cool to see how the one-till vs no-till beds grow and change!
Also, I love your San Diego optimism about the end of winter - I'm in zone 5b and my last frost date is in May. That doesn't stop me from starting seeds indoors in March and then moving them to cold frames in my raised beds (and then panicking about the cold frames collapsing during the inevitable freak blizzard in April, but we'll be waiting a few months before we break out the rototiller! ;)
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Thank you for this, you convinced me to give one-till a try! I'm a rural gardener with a lot of space that no one has gardened in but my soil is like a brick (seriously, you need a pickaxe to get into it when it's dry) and early last winter I started some no-till lasagna beds that are doing well, but you've convinced me to try tilling in some areas and see what happens - it'll be cool to see how the one-till vs no-till beds grow and change!
Also, I love your San Diego optimism about the end of winter - I'm in zone 5b and my last frost date is in May. That doesn't stop me from starting seeds indoors in March and then moving them to cold frames in my raised beds (and then panicking about the cold frames collapsing during the inevitable freak blizzard in April, but we'll be waiting a few months before we break out the rototiller! ;)
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handmade
My imagination looks at a garden like an apartment complex. When you're first building, sometimes the ground has much to be desired/needs restructuring, so you'll bring in your earth movers to deal with whatever is wrong and set a base foundation that will hold up to the test of time. You then start building and let everyone move in. As with any apartment complex, people come and go but the complex is still thriving provided that the operational conditions are optimal, good management, compatible neighbors, etc. Mess with those and in comes chaos. Want to destroy the complex and its inhabitants, pick your disaster. In my mind, this is what I think of when some say you have to till every season. So you're evicting all your residents and going to rebuild the complex from scratch? Hmmmm.
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My imagination looks at a garden like an apartment complex. When you're first building, sometimes the ground has much to be desired/needs restructuring, so you'll bring in your earth movers to deal with whatever is wrong and set a base foundation that will hold up to the test of time. You then start building and let everyone move in. As with any apartment complex, people come and go but the complex is still thriving provided that the operational conditions are optimal, good management, compatible neighbors, etc. Mess with those and in comes chaos. Want to destroy the complex and its inhabitants, pick your disaster. In my mind, this is what I think of when some say you have to till every season. So you're evicting all your residents and going to rebuild the complex from scratch? Hmmmm.
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jeshika22
The soil in my area is only healthy soil for about 1 foot deep, and solid sandstone underneath, can't dig into it at all. so my entire garden consists of varying sizes and types of raised garden beds. I mixed/tilled the existing clay/sandstone/organic matter topsoil, with some very old straw mulch, and A LOT of organic compost in those beds, but have only ever tilled the top inch only when I needed to plant a seed. The most damage I ever do is removing a root vegetable or pulling a deep weed. These boxes are incredibly productive and I wouldn't want to mess that up, but I do also let certain areas of the bed rest under cardboard which probably helps with the weeds and microbes which probably makes a big difference. So in my experience you can no-till even in a raised bed.
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The soil in my area is only healthy soil for about 1 foot deep, and solid sandstone underneath, can't dig into it at all. so my entire garden consists of varying sizes and types of raised garden beds. I mixed/tilled the existing clay/sandstone/organic matter topsoil, with some very old straw mulch, and A LOT of organic compost in those beds, but have only ever tilled the top inch only when I needed to plant a seed. The most damage I ever do is removing a root vegetable or pulling a deep weed. These boxes are incredibly productive and I wouldn't want to mess that up, but I do also let certain areas of the bed rest under cardboard which probably helps with the weeds and microbes which probably makes a big difference. So in my experience you can no-till even in a raised bed.
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In
The large scale commercial no till is promoted and encouraged by Monsanto/U. S. D. A. because it uses massive quantities of non biodegradable herbicide Toxins. They make billions while it washes from these giant tracts of crop lands and creates the new 250 mile DEAD ZONE in our Gulf of Mexico. Phytoplankton plants are all dead at the Mississippi mouth from this because it does not break down in Mother Earth. It even passes through animals and makes plant killing toxic manure. Non Biodegradable toxin should be banned from our food and they should subsidize concentrated vinegar for weed killing instead. Besides some crops like cultivated soil better in my experience. I went back to tillage with cover crops instead of imported mulch and NEVER herbicide toxin of course.
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The large scale commercial no till is promoted and encouraged by Monsanto/U. S. D. A. because it uses massive quantities of non biodegradable herbicide Toxins. They make billions while it washes from these giant tracts of crop lands and creates the new 250 mile DEAD ZONE in our Gulf of Mexico. Phytoplankton plants are all dead at the Mississippi mouth from this because it does not break down in Mother Earth. It even passes through animals and makes plant killing toxic manure. Non Biodegradable toxin should be banned from our food and they should subsidize concentrated vinegar for weed killing instead. Besides some crops like cultivated soil better in my experience. I went back to tillage with cover crops instead of imported mulch and NEVER herbicide toxin of course.
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Lewis
Having worked a short period in Landscaping I can safely say almost every place could use at least 1 good till particularly in urban settings. Clay heavy soils benefit the most and all you really need to do is add organic matter. Sand heavy soils though are a pain since the tilling you should be doing is mostly tilling IN clay soil which may/may not be available in a lot of areas. Obviously none if this is necessary if you doing a tall raised bed that's 2+ feet (0. 6+m.
Only 1 house I did work at didn't really need any tilling other than for a tree transplant. The house was located in the Loess Hills of Iowa, not a single rock, not compacted, not sandy, not to much clay. Damn near perfect growing soil.
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Having worked a short period in Landscaping I can safely say almost every place could use at least 1 good till particularly in urban settings. Clay heavy soils benefit the most and all you really need to do is add organic matter. Sand heavy soils though are a pain since the tilling you should be doing is mostly tilling IN clay soil which may/may not be available in a lot of areas. Obviously none if this is necessary if you doing a tall raised bed that's 2+ feet (0. 6+m.
Only 1 house I did work at didn't really need any tilling other than for a tree transplant. The house was located in the Loess Hills of Iowa, not a single rock, not compacted, not sandy, not to much clay. Damn near perfect growing soil.
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Nicolas
You do NOT wanna wait once you till. You need to plant IMMEDIATELY because you just oxidized all that organic matter by adding oxygen. If you let it sit, the nutrients will simply leech out into the soil with the rain. And if you let it uncovered, no mulch, under the sun and rain, it's gonna recompact quickly especially if it pours rain. So the number one mistake with tilling, is to wait after doing it. You need to plant it or at least mulch it right away. The mulch will protect a bit against the rain. This is why most of our farm soils in the world are so degraded. Because it's tilled, and left in the sun and rain to erode. That's an ecological disaster.
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You do NOT wanna wait once you till. You need to plant IMMEDIATELY because you just oxidized all that organic matter by adding oxygen. If you let it sit, the nutrients will simply leech out into the soil with the rain. And if you let it uncovered, no mulch, under the sun and rain, it's gonna recompact quickly especially if it pours rain. So the number one mistake with tilling, is to wait after doing it. You need to plant it or at least mulch it right away. The mulch will protect a bit against the rain. This is why most of our farm soils in the world are so degraded. Because it's tilled, and left in the sun and rain to erode. That's an ecological disaster.
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Ryan
Ya, in an ideal world your soil would be perfect and the prior owners would have been diligent and you could just maintain an already great ecosystem, but if you have construction waste and huge rocks and other crap (like I do, first-year tilling is mandatory. I mean it's a funny thing, even if we move away someplace else and the prior owner says they took great care of the ground, can I really trust them if I don't see it with my own eyes? If you originate the project and plan to keep the land for the rest of your life, we can dream about creating the perfect permaculture, but until then, there will be tilling.
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Ya, in an ideal world your soil would be perfect and the prior owners would have been diligent and you could just maintain an already great ecosystem, but if you have construction waste and huge rocks and other crap (like I do, first-year tilling is mandatory. I mean it's a funny thing, even if we move away someplace else and the prior owner says they took great care of the ground, can I really trust them if I don't see it with my own eyes? If you originate the project and plan to keep the land for the rest of your life, we can dream about creating the perfect permaculture, but until then, there will be tilling.
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SquintPS
You're going to need to till again. Any organic matter you incorporate will decay, carbon will continue to be depleted by various natural processes. The disadvantages of tilling are greatly overstated, my parents tilled their garden yearly, and also produced bumper crops yearly - I grew up on the stuff. If you grow in a foot of compost like Dowding, sure, don't till - but you'll need to keep adding to it every year. If you grow in the ground, do what works, and what works for heavy/clay soils is tilling in compost and other amendments to improve the soil. If not every year, every other year.
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You're going to need to till again. Any organic matter you incorporate will decay, carbon will continue to be depleted by various natural processes. The disadvantages of tilling are greatly overstated, my parents tilled their garden yearly, and also produced bumper crops yearly - I grew up on the stuff. If you grow in a foot of compost like Dowding, sure, don't till - but you'll need to keep adding to it every year. If you grow in the ground, do what works, and what works for heavy/clay soils is tilling in compost and other amendments to improve the soil. If not every year, every other year.
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Daniel
Thanks so much! This was a great video on a topic that needs to be more understood. Tilling and No Till do have a relationship. Just once is enough. However, I have to disagree with the till before things get going in the spring comment. Especially in good clayey/silty soil. It is so important to wait untill the soil is dried out and warmed up. Otherwise, the damage to the structure can be catastrophic. Most reasonable soils turn into rock hard clumps if tilled when damp/wet. I made this mistake 10 years ago and I can still see the damage done. Wait longer than you want to. Take care!
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Thanks so much! This was a great video on a topic that needs to be more understood. Tilling and No Till do have a relationship. Just once is enough. However, I have to disagree with the till before things get going in the spring comment. Especially in good clayey/silty soil. It is so important to wait untill the soil is dried out and warmed up. Otherwise, the damage to the structure can be catastrophic. Most reasonable soils turn into rock hard clumps if tilled when damp/wet. I made this mistake 10 years ago and I can still see the damage done. Wait longer than you want to. Take care!
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Raul
I agree. But a Deep one, like 60cm Deep till at least and add a fine 5cm compost all over your field before tilling. Then water everything well and add some guinea pigs (easy to contain) or other herbibores (pigs do eat AND till) so all the new growing plants (dormant Seeds) are esten and you have a long life, weedless, spongy, fertile and organic matter rich field to feed yourself for a long time. Pro tip, plant everywhere and whatever is being hit by Sun, mulch with woodchips or compost so the soil stays humid.
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I agree. But a Deep one, like 60cm Deep till at least and add a fine 5cm compost all over your field before tilling. Then water everything well and add some guinea pigs (easy to contain) or other herbibores (pigs do eat AND till) so all the new growing plants (dormant Seeds) are esten and you have a long life, weedless, spongy, fertile and organic matter rich field to feed yourself for a long time. Pro tip, plant everywhere and whatever is being hit by Sun, mulch with woodchips or compost so the soil stays humid.
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David
I've never understood the anti-till ethos. We tilled every year or two when I was growing up, and we always tilled in lots of compost and organic material. It just donned on me watching this that I grew up in west Texas and the anti-till ethos probably comes from places where there is real soil, not just red sand/clay. Tilling always worked great for us.
Now that I live in a more hospitable climate with better soil, I'm reconsidering the need to till every year. Thanks for the info!
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I've never understood the anti-till ethos. We tilled every year or two when I was growing up, and we always tilled in lots of compost and organic material. It just donned on me watching this that I grew up in west Texas and the anti-till ethos probably comes from places where there is real soil, not just red sand/clay. Tilling always worked great for us.
Now that I live in a more hospitable climate with better soil, I'm reconsidering the need to till every year. Thanks for the info!
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