Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
To Till or Not to Till
Garden tilling, also called cultivating, is often done with a gas-powered rototiller that
goes down perhaps six or so inches. Soil can be tilled with a tool such as a pitch fork, too.
Either way, you're turning the soil over so some of the lower soil comes up and some of the
upper soil goes down. It's kind of like a food processor for your soil, just not as fast.
To till or not to till has been a hot topic for decades and still is to this day. I've re-
searched this extensively and find that arguments on both sides make a lot of sense. I've
also found personally that by correctly following a no-till or a low-till method, excellent
results can be achieved.
The main reason tilling can be useful is to get organic matter incorporated into the soil of
a new garden bed or a fallow vegetable garden. If there are plants in or near the garden,
their vital surface roots will be damaged by tilling, so we don't do it in those gardens. If
you're preparing a new garden, however, in a soil that is very low in organic matter, you
might bring in six or so inches of compost and till it in as deeply as a rototiller will let you.
You would do this knowing that it may take a few years for the soil structure to repair and
produce a great crop, but it's often worthwhile if the organic matter was low to begin with.
It's nice to get that organic matter down in there to create a deeper soil root zone that en-
courages plant roots to go down.
Double digging is another method you can use if you don't have or want to use a tiller.
Remove the weeds, grass and roots in the area where a new bed will go and apply at least a
two to three inch layer of compost, along with any fertilizers you need to incorporate based
on a soil test. Then start at one end of the bed and dig a trench approximately 12 inches
deep, removing the soil and putting it in a wheelbarrow. Next, use a pitch fork to loosen the
soil in the bottom of the trench as much as you can, hopefully another 8 to 12 inches below
the level of the first layer you removed.
Dig a second 12-inch deep trench right next to the first one, and put that soil in your first
trench. Loosen the soil in the bottom of your new trench. Now continue the process all
along the bed, filling the last trench with the soil in the wheelbarrow. Some people advoc-
ate doing this every few years when the soil gets compacted again. My view is that the soil
shouldn't get compacted if the nutrient ratios are in line and the biology is happy. You can
find videos online that show the entire double digging process more clearly.
Research shows you can get more carbon and humus formation in a tilled soil. I could
especially see this being the case because in traditional no-till farming, which uses chemic-
als that decimate the soil food web, organic matter left on the surface isn't going to break
down. In a soil with an abundant soil food web, however, earthworms, insects and fungi
can get up to the surface and work on the organic matter. Another argument for tilling is
