Originally Posted by David Hare-Scott[_2_]

Davej wrote:
I have a heavy clay soil and have been rototilling ever since I was a
kid, but now I wonder how that fits in with modern "no-till" ideas. I
did create a small trial plot where I applied a huge amount of mulch,
and it creates a dilemma, because you still get the weeds but you also
have a lot of earthworms that rototilling would chop up. It is not
practical to hand work large areas with a fork unless that is all you
ever want to do in your life, so I wonder what practical methods are
used? Thanks.

I have heavy clay soil that is very hard to work. I ripped it once when I
established the garden and not since. In made beds I turn in soil
ammendments by hand and it is no great effort (I am not a young man nor
super-fit) as the soil there has been broken down from the base clay and I
only turn the top 20cm or so maybe once a year or two. At other times I
just lay mulch or manure on top and rake it a little. It has many worms but
I turn quite gently so few worms are damaged. Aside from harming the worms
there is other damage caused by frequent tilling. There is no need at all
to be constantly tilling your soil whether it is clay or otherwise. You
should have no need of frequent rotatiling.

David