I did the unthinkable and tilled my garden – but why? Isn’t it better to never disturb the soil. It turns out, the answer isn’t as black and white as you might imagine. Tilling made sense – one time – in my backyard in-ground garden.
0:00 – Intro
0:40 – What Is Tilling?
1:52 – Downsides of Tilling
4:27 – Why Did I Till?
7:15 – One Till Tips
IN THIS VIDEO
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I just came here to say, I see that coop in the background… I am so freaking excited for that video when it drops!
Tilled a garden bed to add aeration material and carbon due to the bed having an insane amount of N available don't think I'll be tilling again any day soon the current plants I have in there have powerfull root systems
A soil needs to be kept somewhat active or it will just go fallow
This is so interesting, as I've gone through a bit of an evolution with this too.
I've been very No Dig, but found that on compacted soil, (my place was farmland, and I'm between 2 very large farms, so while we have great soil here it has been compacted by livestock and nutrients locked up with use of superphosphate etc), I was finding that actually putting compost and mulch on to the surface was only creating a thin top layer. It really wasn't being brought down at least not much, by micro organisms.
I was introduced to the idea of broadforking, and over the course of a few years that evolved to opening up new areas by a kind of in place forking / tilling. I do it with a pitchfork, by hand, and mostly manage to break the soil up finely in place in the ground, without turning or upending it or upsetting the layers, and causing the minimal possible harm to soil fauna.
I can then incorporate compost, manures, rock dust etc, just by laying it over the top and forking again to sort of sift it down through the loosened soil.
Doing it that way avoids the negatives of tilling as much as possible I feel, while still getting useable soil quickly for maximum food production straight away.
It's HORRIBLY hard work but my plan is just this, one till, then my chooks compost the plants in, I add mulch etc, and off it goes.
I have been growing food most of my life – I am 51 – but never owned a place until less than 5 years ago. I grow most of the fresh food that I and my kids eat, so I simply don't have the years to gradually build up soil, as you point out, and I am serious about pulling quantity of food out of the soil, feeding myself and 3 kids.
So interesting parallels with things that I have moved to and for similar reasons. Nice to seen thanks for sharing your journey!
why the intro is normal? i missed that one when u just pop out of the bushes or the bed. Its fun to watch honestly XD
Wow, Eric, that was mind boggling! I live on the east coast and I follow Charles Dowding and a number of other British gardeners. Realizing that they are growing on ancient soils that were farm lands and pastures and, like you, I'm growing on an area that was cleared for houses in the last half century and around here was pure sand to begin with. I finally have the answer to Why is this so hard!?
You’ve also got to dig when you have something super invasive, certain grasses are bad enough, my garden suffers from brambles (wild blackberries). Unfortunately, although I have dug out many, many bramble roots, they are in the neighbours gardens so I will never be completely rid of (unless they deal with theirs and stop blaming me!). Still, I am trying to build up the plant life and soil in that area where I can so there is more competition and hopefully the brambles will invade a bit less.
There's no need to do a soil test, the usda nrcs has testing data from basically everywhere in the US and you can find a comprehensive breakdown for your address without paying for one that will likely be less complete. Being an actual market gardner/farmer may be a different story if only because it's your livelihood, but the nrcs has done the work already no need to pay more as a hobbyist
There never is no one correct answer for all gardens or farms. What works up in PA will not work quite as readily down here in TN. Clay, rock, and just less fertile soil isn't as prime. I personally have double dug a lot of acreage over the years as I ammended soil, it's a rediculous amount of work. With acres of garden space on our farm, no til sounds good in theory but isn't always feasible. Not all of us live in the garden like Jim Kovaleski, although I wish.
I plan to till once after removing a portion of my back lawn for a bed. Excited for spring here in zone 7a
do you have chickens yet
Super helpful!
Charles and Kevin are like Obi Wan and Anakin
“You have become the very thing you swore to destroy!”
Long time fan of the show and I just wanna say that carbs are the little term energy.. over 11 years high carb plantbased diet and I cannot get enough! Eat whole plant based carbs and eliminate processed oils
Sporadic tilling can be very beneficial. I opt for deep broadforking which I find gets me the results I need, but a tilling to establish a bed can be a great way to open the soil up. Constant tilling is where you get that compacting effect and constantly destroy mycelium. Breaking up the mycelium every once and while allows them to heal. Vigorous deep tillage multiple times a year is very disruptive.
I LOVE THIS! Kevin you have no idea how valuable this video was. As you know I'm a boring old soil scientist so I'm ALWAYS talking about "dirt" and I recognized this ALL the time in the gardens of folks I am helping. Tillage is a tool and a valuable tool that is very important for anyone in your situation. GREAT VIDEO! Love from Canada ❤❤❤
I would love to see you use that great fence for vertical gardening. Hanging bags of Strawberries or cherry tomatoes. Or even just flowers for a pop of color to your fantastic green garden.
Tilling… you till when you have dirt. It takes a while in the desert to develope soil!
One time till is how I go about it. Tennessee red clay here…not about to wait years for no dig to do its thing. My plot is on good earth too, old pasture grounds and fields. But its still TN clay. So, one till then each fall I cover the beds with shredded leaves for the winter. When spring rolls around, I gently incorporate some of the (now broken down) leaves to the top inch (light rake, broad fork, etc.) then I top with compost/amendments.
I think I may have natural tillers in my new garden spot…moles/ground hogs.
Great discussion.
I'm excited to see the Carolina Coop panels in the background. Just the other day I was wondering how that project was progressing. I built my own from scratch very much inspired by their designs. Love it.
We have been doing so much research and we came to the same conclusion. 1 till method was the best option, but we also have a very high clay content. We hired a local guy who was out of work due to covid to come with his tractor and till. Then covered with clear plastic to germinate as many seeds as possible. Let the ground rest and the weeds eventually died off under the plastic. Covered with cardboard, then aged compost.
I dug out 'CLAY SOIL' in a flower bed until I had replaced it with 2ft of 'Miracle Grow'. After that all I had to do was 'TOP OFF' the bed with Miracle Grow and Mulch. I let 'Native bushes' find their own way after that and I planted my Spring flowers in NEW soil every year, my drought tolerant ones I let find their own way. Sometimes you need a 'COMBINATION' of Till/No Till. Do you!!!!
I always get my soil tested. The test will let you know what ur garden needs and you don't have to worry about it later(only cost about 12 dollars for me). I'll till once a year. Then add a year aged compost on-top of whatever else it needs(from the result of the test). after I plant I'll add in some bone-meal and blood-mean for fast growth then pull back afterword. I've never tried no-till before in my in ground beds but I do respect everyone way of doing things. I love to see what everyone else comes up with. so much fun
We're redoing our wood raised beds.
We just put them in on the cheap just to get started & now we're going to rebuild 1 large U-shaped bed with an I shape in the middle, made out of rammed earth which will look fantastic & last forever.
All of is slopes to one side so the run off from the raised bed drainage flows down through our large squash & strawberry beds which makes them happy. There's a water sink on the end of that full of marshmallows, then a bunch of wildflowers before draining off clean to the neighbor's pond.
We just rototilled the squash/corn patches once & now just add a little extra compost every spring.
We just laid a bunch of logs – Hugel-style on the grass-covered ground within the wood raised beds & filled compost on top.
We add MycoGrow to our new beds to facilitate the growth of garden veggies in addition to the disturbed stuff thriving in the original, compacted clay & pasture grass environment.
Our veg seems to be quite happy & explode with productivity every year now.
The first year, things were a bit stunted from the nitrogen-hogging logs, but after that, no problems.
We also do 2 9' herb spirals. One right off the backdoor for fresh herbs & the other close to the garden for medicinals & those really take off every year.
Yeah, I think there is more to gain from a one time till than never till, at least in desert clay. How long can it take to rebuild the life and structure that was in rock hard dry clay? I've heard the best thing you can do for soil is plant in it. If tilling gets organic matter into the soil, and lets you get plants growing in it, that's going to put life into the soil pretty quickly.