There is still a little bit of time left to get those gardens planted and so even
though I unexpectedly lost last week, here at the Sustainable Living Blog, I still want to encourage you to plant some type
of garden this year.
Today I would like to talk about No-Till gardening. The traditional way of gardening involves annual rototilling of the garden plot.
But it doesn’t have to be that way. In fact, many people have strong convictions about not tilling the ground at all
– under any conditions. There is even a movement underway for large monocrop farmers toward no-till methods.
Annual Rototilling has advantages but it also has disadvantages. Soil is an
organism, an environment all of its own. Soil has a structure all of its own known as the “soil web”. When the
ground is rototilled the “soil web” is destroyed. Yahweh’s rototillers that He has provided, the worm, are
destroyed and all of the soil structure is disturbed. There are many people who believe these disadvantages of tilling the
ground outweigh the advantages.
I am not saying there is no place
for rototilling in the garden. I am simply stating that there is another way that you should seriously consider. In many parts
of the country the Spring season seems to be staying wetter longer. The no-till method of gardening is one way to address
this problem because it can often allow gardens and even fields to be planted weeks sooner than if the ground had to be dry
enough to rototill before planting.
Just some “food
for thought”.
I’ll see you out in the field,
Parson Rayphe
