I am wanting to switch over to a no till method also. I expect to do it a little at a time. My oldest section of garden has just completed its 4th year and is covered with Elbon Rye. I will try to smother the rye and mulch over it. I will try to plant some plants by just using post hole diggers. I have never done anything like this and it may be a big flop.

I will go back tilling if I have to. If you come up with a good no-till method please let us know. My soil is in big need of organic matter and tilling may be the best way to get it into the soil.

I would say to go ahead and get a tiller if you find a good deal. I have two of them and use them for things other than the garden.

Larry

ezzirah - Don't you just have raised beds. I would think you could do that with hand tools.

I garden in the ground (mostly) and have a small Mantis tiller. It's a workhourse and I can handle it easily by myself. Light enough to pick up and carry. I never plant all of my garden at one time tho so I just prepare beds as I need them so a small tiller works great for me. I have had a large tiller before, and I would never do that again.

I will have to go with Carol. If you have raised beds you do not want a tiller like the ones I have. My daughter has a large raised bed garden (railroad ties) and it is hard for me till her garden. I have to drive the tiller over a ramp to get in.

I have had the hots for a Mantis tiller for years. My smaller tiller has a 6.5 hp engine and weighs around 150 lbs. The Mantis has a .9 hp engine and weighs just over 20 lbs.

A shovel or spading fork are pretty much out of the question for me.

Larry

Only 4 of my beds are raised. The other 7 are in ground...

Ezzirah,

If you are going to switch to no-till gardening, you wouldn't need a tiller and, if you use a tiller, you're really not doing no-till gardening, so I'm not sure how to answer this question. When I did no-till gardening our last three years in Texas, I double dug the soil the first year and amended it, built my raised beds above grade level on the double-dug beds by bringing in a mix that was 50% sandy loam and 50% compost, and did not rototill anything.

With a no-till garden that has a cover crop planted in it, you can hand-dig the cover crop, although that partially defeats one of the main tenets of no-till gardening, which is to disturb the soil as little as possible. Or, you can pull out the cover crop and then place it on top of the soil surface so it can decompose, or you can place sheet plastic over the cover crop a couple of weeks before planting time and let the sun bake the cover crop to death.

You also could just cut down the cover crop very close to the ground, leave the cut portions on top of the ground to decompose and plant through the stubble. This works better if you are transplanting transplants into the stubble area, or sowing large seeds like beans or corn. It wouldn't work very well with small-seeded crops.

I have a rototiller and a small cultivator that is, essentially, a mini-tiller and I generally use them only when breaking ground and adding organic matter the very first year. After that, I just use handtools and try to turn over the soil as little as possible.

Dawn

Dawn, you answered my question. IF the cover crop had to be tilled, I would get the tiller. IF the crop could simply be cut and left to decompose, then I would do not by the tiller and simply cut the crop and use it like mulch.

Thanks!

Thought I would add: I was getting conflicting information on how no till gardening worked. I want to switch to no till because I recently became concerned about soil structure. I wanted to take advantage of cover crops in the process, but everything I was reading was telling me the cover crops had to be tilled in, if indeed they had to be tilled in, then I could not make the switch. Make better sense?

Sorry, it is early in the morning when I type this....not enough coffee yet. LOL

The only advice I can give is to try something like crimson clover that is easy to pull or cut short as a mulch and it will not cause you any problms during the gardening season.

Ezzirah,

Some of the confusion probably occurs because plenty of people grow cover crops as a "green manure" that they rototill into the soil to improve the soil. Those people are cover cropping and green manuring, but they aren't practicing no-till gardening.

There are different ways to practice no-till gardening and farming. The farmers here who practice it mostly either just mow down their crop residue (dead standing vegetation) and leave the roots/stubble in the soil or they use herbicides to kill the cover crop vegetation. At planting time, I believe they plant with a seed drill that pokes holes in the ground and drops the seeds into those holes.

There are many benefits derived from no-till farming or gardening and they accrue over time, so the longer you do it, the more benefit you see. One of the main benefits is th improvement in soil structure and moisture retention. However, if you are starting out with extremely slow-draining, moisture-retaining clay or with an impenetrable hardpan, you often have to address the drainage issues before you can begin no-till gardening or farming. For farmers, that often includes putting drainage tiles below ground to carry away excess water.

You should be able to do no-till gardening just fine using only hand-tools and a minimum of soil disturbance.

Dawn

I see, well, I was thinking green manure when I thought of cover crops, I love the idea of it. I also love the idea of a no till garden. I guess I have some thinking to do. The beds were double dug last year when I initially set them up, so I am not worried about a hardpan. I just didn't want to destroy any more structure, yet still maintain a nice garden.

May be a broad fork would work and get the cover crop in the soil with out too much soil structure destruction?