No Till Garden: Build Healthy Soil + Get Better Results

I get the temptation to till. There’s something in all of us gardeners that leaps with joy when we see a freshly turned bed. That rich, dark, blank canvas beckons us to come on over and work our vegetable magic.

We imagine ourselves gently planting a seedling in the fluffy soil with no straining or digging necessary.

But, garden fantasies aside, tilling the garden every year is a terrible idea in practice. Not only are you destroying the soil structure and bringing weed seeds up to the surface – you’re also creating more work for yourself.

I’m going to save you from this horrible fate by sharing why you should establish a no till garden and exactly how to do it.

Truth: I’ve gardened for 20 years and have never tilled my garden. And it’s one of the most amazing and productive gardens I’ve ever seen.

We get a lot of spring rains here where I live in Wisconsin, so often right after someone would till their garden we’d get a huge rain storm which would result in their soil becoming compacted and eroded and often their seeds were washed away. The above photo was from after a rainstorm.

It was painful to watch and reinforced my decision to stick to a no-till garden.

There are many important reasons not to till your garden. Here are the top three you should keep in mind as a home gardener.

You’re destroying the soil structure.

Here’s an excerpt from the USDA’s Natural Resource Conservation Service website:

…”tillage destroys a soil’s physical properties and therefore the soil’s ability to function properly. Tillage destroys and/or depletes the soil’s aggregate stability, structure, pore space, water holding capacity, infiltration, permeability, gaseous exchange and nutrient storage ability.”

These are all incredibly important factors that influence the health and productivity of the plants growing in your garden. If you don’t have healthy soil it’s impossible to grow plants that are as big and productive as they should be.

You’re bringing weed seeds up to the surface.

Personally, I hate weeding and think it’s a completely avoidable waste of time. I do very little over the season in my own garden.

The act of tilling brings many weed seeds up to the surface of the soil – just where they like it! The sun and warmth at the top encourage them to germinate and start growing.

If you left them where they were, in the cool and dark depths of the soil layers, they’d be much less likely to germinate and start outcompeting your vegetable seeds and seedlings.

You’re making more work for yourself.

Not only are you potentially exposing more weed seeds, resulting in many more hours spent weeding, you’re also creating more work in other ways.

In spring when I’m ready to start planting in my no-till garden I simply walk outside, grab my seedlings, dig a small hole in my garden bed, sprinkle in some organic fertilizer, pour in some water, and plant the seedling. In less than a minute I’m done.