Well, I've done basically that many times. I just set my mower on 2 inches, cut the grass that short, spray with strong Roundup (max rate on label, which I believe is 6 ounces per gallon, wait 24 to 48 hours, put down black plastic, and start planting. Works fine. The only caveat -- where I've done this, its pretty light, sandy soil with a lot of fine gravel and rock from the glaciers, I wouldn't do this same thing in my heavy clay area. That I would definitely want to till and amend first before putting down the plastic

I never till ... always turn the soil by hand. I don't walk on the beds and I keep them well mulched with pine straw ... same with the paths.

g'day nick,

take a look at our raised no-dig gardens.

len

Here is a link that might be useful: lens straw bale garden

Lots of people believe that tilling actually destroys your soil rather than improve it.

It sure doesn't do much for earthworms.

I don't till. I garden year round and turn in amendments by hand before planting seeds or plants. That may be in a whole garden or in a little tiny spot since I'm always planting something. I don't really have any month of the year that I don't plant, although June and July are a little slower.
I have a bunch of little garden, some in ground, some above ground, some converted "flower" garden areas along the house so tilling would be impossible anyway, except for one larger area behind my pool. I'm thinking about renting a tiller for the first planting of that area but since I've been piling horse manure and mulch there for the past year it's gotten much softer so I probably won't need to. I'm going to put blackberries there,so a limited number of holes to dig, anyway.

Most of my garden (save for where the coldframes go) gets forked only, no turning.

Dan

Tilling is said by some to be the cause of the most destruction of the soil over the years. It turns and exposes the delicate microbes and fungi to sunlight and air, which kills them. It is these microbes that break down nutrients so the plants can feed on them. Tilling also loosens the soil so severely that the slightest winds can carry off the valuable humus, and so can rain. It seems silly to try to build up your soil and then deliberately cause it to blow away.

Forking the soil like Dan does doesn't turn the soil, it just lifts and loosens it and lets in some air. Just shove in the spading fork and lean back on it and lift the soil a bit to loosen it. Then back up three or four inches and do it again. Don't stand on the bed again after using your fork.

If your soil is in good condition and not compacted, you don't even need to fork it. Just rake off any mulch and scatter some organic fertilizer over it, then scratch it into the top inch or so, then sow your seeds and cover them. Once the plants are up a few inches, you can replace the mulch, but not right up to the plant stem; leave a little clear area around it. Just add a thin layer at first, then more as the plants grow.

The mulch will continuously break down where it touches the soil, the soil creatures will grab some of it and pull it underground, and the microbes will be working on it, too. If you mulched your plants just once in spring, through the summer you would see it getting thinner and skimpier -- the soil creatures are working together to feed the plants. To keep it deep enough to shade out any sprouting weed seeds and to protect the soil so it doesn't dry out, you'll have to add more every so often.

I have a friend whose property is covered with different kinds of trees. Every fall he cusses those leaves as they keep falling and he keeps raking and blowing. I do my part to help him with his problem *grin* by filling my pickup with as much of his "tree waste" as I can, and spreading it over my fall garden beds, paths, new areas, etc. I try to get it thick enough so nothing can grow under it between fall and spring, although my chickens tend to dig holes in it, looking for bugs.

If I can keep the beds covered all winter, in spring all I have to do is rake aside what leaves are left when it's time to plant, scratch up the soil, and plant. All winter (this is the Pacific Northwest with fairly mild winters, compared to some) the soil creatures have been working, and the soil is dark and crumbly and soft -- perfect. But since we have so much rain (30"+), it washes out most of the nitrogen, calcium, magnesium, etc, so I have to add it in organic form every spring.

If you have access to organic mulch, spread it over your soil in fall, and put the plastic over it if you want. The moisture from your snowpack will problem seep underneath and keep it moist (well, when it's not frozen...)

Sue

I always wonder where all those earthworms come from. When I started my gardens on this property there wasn't a single one and now my gardens are loaded. I know where the red wrigglers in the one garden came from since I used some vermicompost there but do the earthworms just migrate in? I can't imagine they lived deep down under that rock hard ground. I coundnt even chip it with a pick when I started!

I have a permanent bed, no till garden. The beds, about 4 feet wide, aren't raised. The paths are mulched with wood chips; the beds with hay (not straw--much too expensive.) The key is to get spoiled hay, not old hay full of weed seeds. Over the years, the soil has improved tremendously. I rotate crops by shifting the beds they're in in the same pattern year after year.

One of the greatest advantages of this type of garden is that you can plant at any time: fall planting of spinach for early spring cutting, February planting of parsley and spring spinach to come after the fall planted crop.

Oh, and did I mention that there's no hoeing involved. There just aren't any weeds to speak of.

If you plant rye in the fall, you will be doing some tilling for sure. If you add rotted manures or leaf compost in the fall, you may want to do some light tilling in. If you have lots of clover volunteer from horse manure, you may want to till them and other volunteer seedlings...like apple, tomato, ground cherry, or amaranthus.

What I am saying is that there is no one size fits all. I do some tilling. In heavier soils likely some seed preperation tilling is desirable. Yes, I have about 3500 sq. ft. of raised beds that are easy care, but have about 4000 sq. ft. of unraised beds.

I don't like the plastic idea, I think mulching and cover crops are better for the soil. I can certainly see the need for tilling in some cases, I simply don't need it in my small, year-round gardens.

just wondering as i've never done it when you plant a green manuer crop like rye, why can't it be cut and dropped where it is or pulled and dropped then mulched over? the worms who aren't being disurbed by tilling will turn it in. that way you should then be able to plant through the mulch layer directly instead of waiting until the dug in material rots.

len

Here is a link that might be useful: lens garden page

I do raised bed square foot gardening. Absolutely, no till.
Just fork it up a bit and add compost.
Keski

So, what about no-till for 2 acres? Most of what I'm reading here is smaller plots and sections of 4,000 SF.

I have one acre covered with grass that I would like to put at least into a more 'nutritious' cover. The tilling is not possible for me. So I am thinking of sowing something like buckwheat (right into the mowed grass), let it get some growth, and as soon as it starts to flower, mow it down and just let it sit. Then sow again and repeat. Sowed thickly enough, it is said to shade out weeds and (I hope) grass. Cereal rye might, too, but whatever you use, you would have to be religious about mowing it before it started to set seed.

Buckwheat is said to be very brittle, and might just knock down... might not have to actually mow.

The trouble with most info on no-till uses heavy chemical weed intervention, which I refuse to do.

Sue