Pommes, Your question is a very good one and worthy of some research as well as digesting the responses given. Before I get into details of the Soil Foodweb, I say gather a soil sample for analysis and send it off now before the rush in spring. The quick analysis report will identify what is needed for your soil based on what you intend to grow. Give it a good deep till now and cover with a thick mat of leaves and fresh grass clippings. This mulch of carbon and nitrogen material will feed the bacteria and fungi, particularly the fungi over the winter. Most of the bacteria will go into hibernation until spring; they do not die. The green manure (cover crop) is best started as harvest ends. You can even sow it while other plants or residue remain. Rye is good for weed control and a red/crimson clover is good for deep roots. Both are great as green manures. Look into green manures for understanding their contribution. Think of them as additions to your crop rotation. Look into cover crops to understand the uses and variety of options. A lot will depend on your soil too. Look at the range of legumes, grasses and grains in answer to the soil test analysis. The organic matter is always something that will be needed. Manures and compost whould be well aged or cured; meaning reasonably stable and not looking like the original materials. In the future you can limit the depth of your tillage to limit soilweb disruption. Set your depth control for 3-4 inches. Add your compost or other organic material before spring tilling so it gets mixed into the soil. The soil foodweb is the community of organism that contribute to good soil structure and nutrient cycling. Stucture and cycling are what determine how well crops grow. Avoid soluble fertilizer. Look for the organic stuff that is usually crushed mineral rock or derived from organic matter. The organic stuff will be process by the soil organizes more or less as the plants need it. Organic fertilizers will last for years versus the chemical stuff. As the soil foodweb balances organism population you shall enjoy optimum production. A healthy soil (foodweb) is dominated by benificial organism which protect against diseases and pests. Definitely plan a rotation. Each plant family contributes differently to the foodweb. Each plant family also takes differently. Plan heavy feeders after contributors; especially with a legume (and green manures) contributing to nitrogen needs. The strongest recommendation I can offer is to lay out permanent beds. Walk only on the paths, even when tilling. Don't forget the soil test. You may need to change the soil pH which is best initiated in the fall so the change occurs over the winter. Good luck and keep the questions coming. Dan ps - Do check out ATTRA and google 'soil foodweb' to gain further understanding.

I agree that tilling isn't necessary. It does make digging easier though, no doubt. I've reclaimed grassy spots using only smothering, by digging off the grass, and by starting with tilling. Areas that I've turned into beds without tilling have improved much more significantly in regard to tilth and fertility over the same amount of time. As said, the worms and other dirt-dwellers will mix it up for you, that's their job. It seems like a lot of them would be killed by tilling but I don't have enough experience in general with tilling to make a call on that. After comparing methods, I won't bother tilling anything here anymore, or digging out grass. It's far easier and seems more beneficial to just smother and pile on the organic matter, already composted or not, just a little more patience required the first year in regard to the ease of hole-digging or waiting to make sure the grass is definitely dead. Unfortunately drying out too much is the problem in this drought-prone area and a thick layer of OM helps a lot to combat that, especially in the tilled and grass-dug-out areas which dry out much more quickly than the smother spots. I would do everything you said, except the tilling part, especially since it's been done recently, but clearly others would disagree. It's good to hear different testimonials, so you are more able to understand how these options might work best for your conditions, available tools and materials, lifestyle, energy level, budget, soil type, what you hope to grow, etc... One of the coolest things about gardening is that two people can do two completely different things and come up with the same result - great plants. I hope whatever methods you choose work well for you! Whenever one is killing bad bugs, the good bugs are usually killed also. I would never put those moisture crystals in the ground or in pots. Bought them once and nothing good happened and have since read too many professional opinions that they actually draw moisture away from roots. They do make a cool vase though.

rhlee - now I know where you are situated I'll chip in. I also have clay soil and there is an optimum time to dig it. That is in spring or autumn when it is damp but not too sticky and not yet dried out. At the moment I would at least wait until after it's rained before trying to dig. I would do it like this. Get a proper garden fork, not a little hand fork. Forget tillers unless you are doing a large open area like a veg patch. And forget prongy cultivators as they don't dig deep enough. It is a waste of effort to dig and then to weed separately. Do it all in one action. Slowly work through the beds digging a full fork depth (not 2 inches) and removing weeds as you go. Go carefully around established plants. Put as much organic material as you can onto the beds - make compost, get rotted manure, put down autumn leaves, whatever. You can turn any annual weeds under as you go or you can put them on the compost heap if you prefer. Perennials like bindweed and couch grass must be removed thoroughly and dried totally before putting on the compost heap. I really don't recommend the newspaper method under our conditions. I have tried it, and the cardboard method, and all I get is compacted soil under the paper, weeds coming through it and a barrier to properly cultivating the soil. Also, and I know this sounds odd, I don't think the layering technique is really in keeping with the style of gardening over here where we tend to like to see some nice turned earth in a well defined , crisp edged bed, not a surface covered in various organic materials. But that's just a matter of taste. Don't worry about hurting the worms. They'll burrow down if they're disturbed. If you do happen to spear a few it is of no consequence in the sum of things. It has been pretty warm and relatively dry in London recently so it might be better to overhaul the beds later in the year. In the meantime just cut back weeds to prevent seeding. If anyone near you has a tree surgeon in with a chipper they might be prepared to let you have some wood chips if you can provide bags. They make a good mulch. Later on, when you are just doing maintenance and want to get a few weeds out, a hand fork is far better than a trowel which is mainly designed for planting.

Whatever was on your street was in your beds. The stuff dries up, and goes airborne. It lands everywhere. Or is washes into the culvert near the street, and is in your groundwater. It you want to segregate street pollution from the bed, you'd better just move your bed a long ways away from the street. Another way to look at it is that a lot of what washed into your street, and then off your street, will leach out of your bed. The idea that a few feet of space insulates a bed chemically and biologically from its surroundings is not correct. We live in a dirty world, and might as well just accept that.