# No-Till Gardening?



## AnnieOakley2014 (Feb 24, 2014)

Is there anyone out there that has been using a no-till gardening method for more than a couple years that want's to share some pictures of your garden space, and tell a little bit about the process you used to get started?


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## Terri (May 10, 2002)

Well, I covered the ground with woven greenhouse flooring: does that count? 

I punched holes every 3 feet and put tomato plants and such in them. Mind, you do have to sweep the garden at times or the drifts of soil and compost will let weeds grow, and then they have to be pulled by hands. Weeks of constant rain will also let weeds grow as the seeds stay damp


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## geo in mi (Nov 14, 2008)

Hi Annie.

Welcome to the forums. Can't help you with any pictures of no-till practices in my own garden. I use ALAP tillage. I'm sure you will get lots of answers from a lot of gardeners. To me, the main idea is to do what is best for your own particular piece of this planet that you are using to grow your food. It starts with your soil first, then you deal with it in ways that will promote plant growth and keep it producing with minimum and least costly inputs. 

So, your best question for now might be: What is your soil like, how healthy is it, does it drain well, is it fertile down in the root zone? Next question might be: What will you plant, seeds, or transplants?

Next might be: What's your climate? Will you have too much water, or not enough?

Answer these questions first before you decide to go with any one specific type of no-till--or any other system.

geo


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## Declan (Jan 18, 2015)

My understanding is that most no-til is really low-til, meaning you will still get compaction over time that needs to be broken up.


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## AnnieOakley2014 (Feb 24, 2014)

geo in mi said:


> Hi Annie.
> 
> Welcome to the forums. Can't help you with any pictures of no-till practices in my own garden. I use ALAP tillage. I'm sure you will get lots of answers from a lot of gardeners. To me, the main idea is to do what is best for your own particular piece of this planet that you are using to grow your food. It starts with your soil first, then you deal with it in ways that will promote plant growth and keep it producing with minimum and least costly inputs.
> 
> ...



First off, let me say thanks for the warm welcome to the forum. 

Immediately after that was where you went off the rails. 

I requested info about no-till gardening, not what kind of gardening you do, or your ideas about how to chose my own style. Don't get me wrong, I find ALAP fascinating, but that was not what I asked about, was it?

Yes, geo, I have answered the question of what my garden patch has, doesn't have, and needs . . . This is not my first rodeo with this particular piece of this planet. 

I do, however, want to see how others started the no-till style, and hopefully see some pics of their setup, if that is an ok ask of this forum. If not, since I have actually been growing vegetables from dirt for 50 years before I posted this question here in this forum, I am sure I can figure out how to make the transition without the forums help. 

Thanks so much though for the welcome.


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## Bellyman (Jul 6, 2013)

If you have a look at the J M Fortier series on Youtube, you'll see some pictures of his garden beds, even a few video clips of how he takes care of them. He's not "no-till" exactly but does not till in a conventional way. He has raised beds about 30" wide that he keeps raised by continuing to move dirt from the walkways up into the beds season to season. He also continues to add compost and limited amendments as he feels the need to do so. What "tilling" he does is very shallow, like the top inch or two of dirt and for the deeper "tillage", a quick stirring (for lack of a better term) fairly deep down with a broadfork. You'll see it all on the videos if you decide to watch.

FWIW, I think he has a pretty good thing going. And while I don't agree with everything he's doing and don't want to do everything exactly the way he does it, I find his methods and practices interesting. A person can learn by observing, which is one reason I like to watch YouTube. Lots of junk. But there's some good stuff, too.

Good luck.


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## geo in mi (Nov 14, 2008)

AnnieOakley2014 said:


> First off, let me say thanks for the warm welcome to the forum.
> 
> Immediately after that was where you went off the rails.
> 
> ...


So sorry, I retract my answer.

geo


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## Terri (May 10, 2002)

Declan said:


> My understanding is that most no-til is really low-til, meaning you will still get compaction over time that needs to be broken up.


Only if you use a rototiller on very wet, high clay soil. Or unless you use a tractor, and few people use a tractor on a vegetable garden. 

The roots of the plants do a pretty good job of breaking up compaction, unless you do the above.

AnnieOakley, DID you meat no till at all, or is a tilling at the beginning of th year OK? I did not think you would be interested as I know you said no-till, but last year I grew what I called a "Ribbon garden". Basically, I used the rototiller to make a long line in my lawn, and then I planted ONE row of corn. And when I mowed the lawn I mowed up close to the corn stalks. I made te row East-West so that the prevailing winds would blow the pollen along the line of corn.

I would have mentioned it, but you DID say no-till, and I did use the tiller once before I put the seeds in the ground.


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## Ellendra (Jul 31, 2013)

I've been growing no-till on my main garden, for the simple reason that I don't have the shoulder strength to use a tiller.

It was a neglected hay-field before I started, so my first move was to lay down some heavy-duty landscaping fabric, and let it set for a year. I tried solarizing and other techniques, but my land is too windy and just tore the plastic apart. 

Once the fabric had smothered most of the weeds, I cut holes and planted what I wanted. It still has a lot of weeds to pull every year, and the "20-year" fabric is deteriorating within 5 years, but it was a start.

I'm in the process of getting my riding tiller repaired, and will be using it for the 1-acre field next to my garden. What's covered by fabric is going to be a perennial berry patch.

I should mention, my garden is in an area where it's hard to haul supplies to. If you can drive up to your garden easily, then I'd recommend the lasagne gardening method instead. But be prepared to haul stuff! It takes a lot of inputs to get that started.


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## Terri (May 10, 2002)

Riding tiller? Are you talking about those tillers that are pulled behind a riding mower?


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## jwal10 (Jun 5, 2010)

I double dug mine over the years and added amendments so it was an easy conversion to just add a lot of compost to the top and keep planting. Pull the compost back and plant, push the compost back as the plants grow.

When I start a new area I add compost to the rows, plant tillage radishes to a 3' wide row to break up the hardpan, add compost, plant cover crops to the rows and then add compost again and plant. In between the planting rows I add 6"-8" of wood chips....James


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## Ellendra (Jul 31, 2013)

Terri said:


> Riding tiller? Are you talking about those tillers that are pulled behind a riding mower?


It started as one of those. Dad decided it needed some "improvements".


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## TheKingsTable (Jan 13, 2016)

No pictures at the moment since it's raining outside.

For our first garden in 2009, my husband tilled the whole area. I hated it (the hard crust of soil that formed, the muddiness after a rain, the lack of diversity among the insects that left just the pests, etc.), so I started mulching. I had no budget for building beds, and they don't suit my personality anyways, so I plant straight into the ground...kind of a free-form garden or perennials and annuals with winding paths that change a little each year. 

The process: I tossed kitchen scraps, manure, shredded paper, dryer lint, etc. onto the previously-tilled ground. Covered it with cardboard (in the fall if I wanted to plant by next spring, so the cardboard had time to decompose a bit. Otherwise, I had to take a knife to cut through it.) Added a few inches of leaves as the bulk of my mulch. I learned the hard way that the leaves need to be weighed down since my area is windy, so a thin layer of heavier stuff went on top -- wood chips, pine needles, cut grass, chop-and-drop weeds. Now random stuff just gets tossed onto the mulch, too, like dried bean pods and corn husks. 

It's not a weed-free garden, but the soil is certainly healthier and livelier with worms and such, and I don't have to water nearly as much. I have to replace the cardboard in the paths every couple of years, and more mulch materials have to be added to the whole area every year. Amendments (like manure and rock dust) are added before the new mulch is placed, but I don't work them in. I figure the rain and critters can do most of that. The only thing I really dig in is fish entrails -- I dig deep holes where the corn is going and bury the fishiness. 

If I had the resources, I'd probably do the whole thing in wood chips, since they'd probably block weeds better. But I use what's available for free, and that's worked well. I won't go back to tilling.


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## Terri (May 10, 2002)

Ellendra said:


> It started as one of those. Dad decided it needed some "improvements".


Our Father's must be cousins: Mine likes to work in wood. He improved my greenhouse.


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## AnnieOakley2014 (Feb 24, 2014)

TheKingsTable said:


> No pictures at the moment since it's raining outside.
> 
> For our first garden in 2009, my husband tilled the whole area. I hated it (the hard crust of soil that formed, the muddiness after a rain, the lack of diversity among the insects that left just the pests, etc.), so I started mulching. I had no budget for building beds, and they don't suit my personality anyways, so I plant straight into the ground...kind of a free-form garden or perennials and annuals with winding paths that change a little each year.
> 
> ...


Thanks so much!


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## Blueridgeviews (May 3, 2015)

I have been a no-til gardener for 47 years now.
Started out using Ruth Stout's mulching no til methods decades ago because I am lazy by nature.
My husband and I have moved seven times in those years and started new gardens in each
place. We grow, can, freeze, most of the organic produce, eggs, and meat we eat.

The first year, if the soil is unusually compacted, we turn just the beds, not the walkways, under with whatever organic material
Is available such as livestock manure, compost, leaves, grass clipping, alfalfa hay or whatever.
Then we just pile on a foot or two of mulch. We water it thoroughly and stomp it down and let the heat, moisture and worms do their thing. We've used all kinds of different mulches. Straight wood chips, straw, hay, leaves, chicken coop cleanings, or whatever is available.
First planting year, we pull back the mulch where we plant and put in some compost where the plant or row goes and plant directly in that. By the time the roots expand into the mulch it has decomposed enough to support the needs of the plants.

Every year after that we just heap on the mulch, manure, or chips in fall, and the soil is fantastic by the second year -- and improves every year. Minimal weeding and the few weeds come out like butter.

Tilling chops up worms, and destroys their tunnels and eggs. Tilling disturbs the complex micro fungi life that creates healthy soils.

If you use wood chips, try to get them in the summer when they are full of leaves and organic matter. Chips need a source of organic and nitrogen matter
Adding some alfalfa hay, pellets,or cubes have worked great for us to add nitrogen to the chips if you,don't have chicken manure or grass clippings.. Wood chips hold the moisture better than even straw in our experience.

We've also experimented with worm tunnels for breaking up hard compacted soils. You get five gallon food-safe plastic buckets with lids (Lowes Hardware)and drill holes for the worms all around the sides and bottom. Bury the bucket almost to the top and keep filling it with your kitchen waste compost. In a month or two the bucket will have hundreds of worms that carry their worm castings out into the bed and make tunnels breaking up all the surrounding hard packed soil. It takes a year or two to see a big difference in all the surrounding soil, but worth it if you don't want to turn over a lot of hard packed soil. In a few months empty the composted waste, sort the worms out, and use the compost where needed -- it's fantastic compost.

Another helpful thing is to save your seed from the best plants each year that survived as the hardiest and most pest resistant. They pass on that knowledge to the next generation and each seed generation learns how to adapt better and better to the particulars of your garden's soil, pests, and weather.
Also I cherish the volunteers that come up each year as they are super strong and often resist the frost better.

No til is way easier than the pros would lead you to believe. Don't get sucked into complicated methods and discussions-- just start heaping on as much organic matter as you can find. The soil and your plants will tell you what they need -- just be observant.

Good luck to you!


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## Martlet (Apr 20, 2015)

Excellent info. I'm trying it for the first time this year.


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## woodsy_gardener (May 27, 2007)

Double post.
Sorry


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## woodsy_gardener (May 27, 2007)

Excellent!
My current garden was carved out of a wooded area 5 years ago. Clay soil, low in organic matter, it has never been tilled. I use no poisons and dilute urine for fertilizer. Year round leaf mulch. Try lots of varieties as many were bred to require tilling, chemical fertilizers, other such babying. Couldn't grow broccoli till I tried Green Goliath. Raspberries were non-productive till I tried Caroline. Russian kale grows like a weed. Have yet to find an eggplant. Most okra and dent or popcorn grow well if given plenty of 'golden' fertilizer. (I dilute 1:15). And very important as blueridgeviews said: Save you best seeds.


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## AngelaTurner (Aug 26, 2020)

To begin with, I cleared the space of dry grass and leaves


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## SmokeEater2 (Jan 11, 2010)

Old thread but still good info. I'm trying this on two of my raised beds as I ready them for winter this year to compare side by side with my other beds next spring.


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## Valcine (Jan 6, 2022)

AnnieOakley2014 said:


> Is there anyone out there that has been using a no-till gardening method for more than a couple years that want's to share some pictures of your garden space, and tell a little bit about the process you used to get started?


Hello,

I use no till gardening. I live in the desert, so when I started, there was just sand. I began with four raised beds which I kept for two years. I added worms from Uncle Jim's Worm farm to aid in fertilizing and distributing organic matter. I directly added table scraps weekly to the raised beds to feed the worms. For my third gardening year, I converted the raised beds to in-ground beds and planted four fruit trees. Of course with living in the desert, I had to do quite a bit of digging and soil amendment when planting the trees. I also used Chip Drop to get some free mulch. I received three huge piles. Once I planted all the seedlings I had started indoors, I began preparing 4X4 areas with the hope of using them this upcoming growing season. I excavated three inches, added an inch of gardening soil, added a wheelbarrow of chicken manure from the composing pile which is full of worms, and covered it all with the free mulch from Chip Drop. Since the manure will be well aged when I am ready to plant, I am hoping that these new beds (eight of them) will be ready for crops come spring. Here are some photos from over the years.











































I also have a flower bed in the front to which I added worms and I mulch it yearly. European Night Crawlers feed on all decaying organic matter, so that keeps them sustained. When I did to add annuals or new plants, I always encounter a few, so I know they are thriving. 








In short, the key is adding worms and plenty of organic matter. I only dig when planting.
Hope this helps.


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## Pony (Jan 6, 2003)

Wow! Quite impressive, @Valcine!

I was hunting up a book on Thriftbooks.com the other day, and saw the book on lasagna gardening. Lost my copy years ago, so I picked it up to have another go at it.


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## Valcine (Jan 6, 2022)

Pony said:


> Wow! Quite impressive, @Valcine!
> 
> I was hunting up a book on Thriftbooks.com the other day, and saw the book on lasagna gardening. Lost my copy years ago, so I picked it up to have another go at it.


Thank you, Pony! I have enjoyed my gardening journey and am looking forward to this upcoming season. I too have read information on lasagna gardening, and it seems that those who try it have a lot of success with it. 

Valcine


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## Miss Kay (Mar 31, 2012)

We've moved so many times over the years and started new gardens/orchards at most but seemed we always left about the time things were going great. Now that we are old and in our retirement forever home I'm working to get it all set up one last time. The advantage of all those starts and stops is I've learned and now I'm getting a fresh start to get it right! we have 60 acres but most is covered with forest and what isn't is on a hill so it was hard to find a place but hubby cleared out a hilltop garden 70X30 for our garden. We got a dump truck load of manure from the neighbors and spread that and then today he disc it all in good. From here, we'll make several permanent 30 foot rows, 3 feet wide with 3 feet wide paths in between. I've ordered the landscape fabric for the paths and will plant the rows solid (square foot garden style) and let some of it fall over into the paths. It looks really good after the disc and hubby said the dirt on this hill was much better than he expected so I'm hopeful. I don't plan to ever have the tractor or a tiller in there again. I will continue to add compost and mulch regularly and let nature take care of it. I like to add a few inches of fresh compost on top of the row each spring and then plant directly in that. That way I don't have to worry about having a suitable seed bed. This is the time of year where anything looks possible but I'll try and jump back in as summer gets here to let you know how it actually turned out. I'm eager to hear from others how it is going in your garden.


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## Danaus29 (Sep 12, 2005)

Mine are too wet to do anything except pull weeds and dump compost material in the piles. I hope to get the path in the smallest mulched this week. I might be able to get some lettuce and carrots planted in it once the mulch is spread.


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## wdcutrsdaughter (Dec 9, 2012)

I do no till gardening also. Someone explained it to me this way "It's how nature gardens!"
Just keep layering.

I recently heard a gardeing talk that included hugelculture beds. Which to me seems similar to lasagna except you start with logs.


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## Pony (Jan 6, 2003)

wdcutrsdaughter said:


> I do no till gardening also. Someone explained it to me this way "It's how nature gardens!"
> Just keep layering.
> 
> I recently heard a gardeing talk that included hugelculture beds. Which to me seems similar to lasagna except you start with logs.


Neighbor does hugelkultur. VERY prolific, especially with squash, which neighbor generously shares.


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## RJ2019 (Aug 27, 2019)

I do no-till. I sheet mulch with cardboard then straw on top. I dig small holes and add manure and compost to the planting holes. Keep a compost bin in the middle of the garden.
Lots of fungal and insect life in the soil, I am on year 4 at this place now and have never tilled.
I did add some swales this year.


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