Marie Dodge said:

"Pat Kiewicz" wrote

Tilling too much or too little has no effect on insect pests.

It has a huge effect on soil biota, and that includes many BENEFICIALS:
ground beetles, tiger beetles, mycchorizal fungi, predatory nematodes,
etc. etc.

The recent
soil test showed plenty of organic matter. OM isn't the problem.

But just a ways up the thread you complained about it disappearing
quickly...then when you later said it was tilled *twice* and turned yet
again before planting in the spring, it seemed reasonable to bring
the subject up.


I never even do any tillage (and for me, that's gentle forking) of the
soil without adding organic material.

That's one of top tips right there...no matter what soil you have.


Then you don't have the heavy poor fine clay soil we do.

Yeah, but before I moved here, I gardened on heavy clay. Breaking
that was enourmous work. (Even though I was 26 years younger!)
The main part of that garden was broken with a tiller and 6 yards
of trucked in mushroom compost. And it never had anything but
hand tilling again. (It was divided into several long beds, raised
up on one side like a terrace, running across the slope.)

When we added a couple of beds to it, it was hand-double dug with
huge chunks of blue clay (some of the most solid chunks were hauled
off). Took all the compost we had. Set up a few raised beds and
never more than hand tilled them, either.

And never even hand-tilled without adding some additional OM.
--
Pat in Plymouth MI ('someplace.net' is comcast)

After enlightenment, the laundry.