I prefer no-till "Lasagna" gardening, or "Sheet Mulching" as others call
it. To my way of thinking it is the best way to garden, and it requires
less exertion.

---

Gaia's Garden, Second Edition: A Guide To Home-Scale Permaculture
(Paperback)
by Toby Hemenway
http://www.amazon.com/Gaias-Garden-S...culture/dp/160
3580298/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1271266976&sr=1-1

p. 81 - 82

To Till or Not to Till

We've seen that organic matter keeps soil light and fluffy and easy for
roots to penetrate. What then about the mechanical methods used for
breaking up soil?

The invention of the plow ranks as one of the great steps forward for
humanity. Farmers know that plowing releases locked-up soil fertility.
Plowing also keeps down weeds and thoroughly mingles surface litter with
the soil. We do all this, too, when we drag our power-tiller out of the
garage and push the snorting beast through the garden beds in a cloud of
blue smoke.

What's really happening during tilling? By churning the soil, we're
flushing it with fresh air. All that oxygen invigorates the soil life,
which zooms into action, breaking down organic matter and plucking
minerals from humus and rock particles. Tilling also breaks up the soil,
greatly increasing its surface area by creating many small clumps out of
big ones. Soil microbes then colonize these fresh surfaces, extracting
more nutrients and exploding in population.

p.82
This is great for the first season. The blast of nutrients fuels
stunning plant growth, and the harvest is bountiful. But the life in
tilled soil releases far more nutrients than the plants can use. Unused
fertility leaches away in rains. The next year's tilling burns up more
organic matter, again releasing a surfeit of fertility that is washed
away. After a few seasons, the soil is depleted. The humus is gone, the
mineral ores are played out, and the artificially stimulated soil life
is impoverished. Now the gardener must renew the soil with bales of
organic matter, fertilizer, and plenty of work.

Thus, tilling releases far more nutrients than plants can use. Also, the
constant mechanical battering destroys the soil structure, especially
when perpetrated on too-wet soil (and we're all impatient to get those
seeds in, so this happens often). Frequent tilling smashes loamy soil
crumbs to powder and compacts clayey clods into hardpan. And one tilling
session consumes far more calories of energy than are in a year's worth
of garden
grown food. That's not a sustainable arrangement.

Better to let humus fluff your soil naturally and to use mulches to
smother weeds and renew nutrients. Instead of unleashing fertility at a
breakneck, mechanical pace, we can allow plant roots to do the job.
Questing roots will split nuggets of earth in
their own time, opening the soil to microbial colonization, loosening-
nutrients at just the right rate. Once again, nature makes a better
partner than a slave.
-----

McGowan's Drinking Guide (Translated from the original German. It's
complicated, OK?)
Drinking Problems

Symptom Fault Action to be Taken

Bar is moving You are being Find out if you are
carried out being taken to
another pub - if not
protest that you are
being kidnapped by the
Salvation Army.

--

If you like weekends (8 hr./day & 40 hr./week), then thank a labor union.
They paid for it in blood. Real working class heros.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haymarket_affair

Taxes
Citizen$ --- Government --- Corporations --- Top 1% --Where the
money went

Are you better off than you were 30 years ago? 10 years ago? Last Year?
--
- Billy

Dept. of Defense budget: $663.8 billion
Dept. of Health and Human Services budget: $78.4 billion


Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed. This world in arms is not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children. This is not a way of life at all in any true sense. Under the clouds of war, it is humanity hanging on a cross of iron.
- Dwight D. Eisenhower, 16 April 1953

I composted long before today's "experts" knew what it was and only a lazy person shies away from rototilling. So how do today's "expert" put in a lawn. Lay cardboard and newspaper across the empty space for a year then seed? Todays "experts" have an answer for everything, that is taking shortcuts to save the environment.

In article ,
bullthistle wrote:

I composted long before today's "experts" knew what it was and only a
lazy person shies away from rototilling. So how do today's "expert" put
in a lawn. Lay cardboard and newspaper across the empty space for a year
then seed? Todays "experts" have an answer for everything, that is
taking shortcuts to save the environment.

There are those of a different opinion on rototilling. Why shouldn't
their concerns be allowed to be expressed?

"A lawn in preindustrial times trumpeted to all that the owner possessed
enough wealth to use some land for sheer ornament, instead of planting
all of it to food crops.

And close-mowed grass proclaimed affluence, too:
a herd of sheep large enough to crop the lawn
uniformly short. These indicators of status whisper
to us down the centuries. By consciously recognizing
the influence of this history, we can free
ourselves of it and let go of the reflexive impulse to
roll sod over the entire landscape."

You are in favor of saving the environment, aren't you?
How would you do it differently?

Please, continue.


If you like weekends (8 hr./day & 40 hr./week), then thank a labor union.
They paid for it in blood. Real working class heros.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haymarket_affair


Taxes
Citizen$ --- Government --- Corporations --- Top 1% --Where the
money went

Are you better off than you were 30 years ago? 10 years ago? 1 year ago?

Thank Reaganomics/Thatcherism, a.k.a. Voodoo economics :O(
--
- Billy

Dept. of Defense budget: $663.8 billion
Dept. of Health and Human Services budget: $78.4 billion


Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed. This world in arms is not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children. This is not a way of life at all in any true sense. Under the clouds of war, it is humanity hanging on a cross of iron.
- Dwight D. Eisenhower, 16 April 1953

I till a new bed the first year and then turn it over the following
years with a spading fork. A tiller chops up way too many earthworms
which I like in my beds.

Rich

Tilling is a good way in my book for first time ground prepping. After that
no more tilling is needed ever. Be it for new lawn or garden.

--
Enjoy Life... Nad R (Garden in zone 5a Michigan)

:

A tiller chops up way too many earthworms which I like in my beds.

Deep tilling produces a fluffy loam that encourages earthworm
reproduction to a far greater extent than the relatively few that get
destroyed during the process, and spading cuts up just as many. The
vast majority of earthworms reside much more deeply than can be
tilled.

Crackpots come in all shapes, colors and sizes who assume they have "all" the answers. Meet many wouldn't be a friend to any.

In article ,
bullthistle wrote:

Crackpots come in all shapes, colors and sizes who assume they have
"all" the answers. Meet many wouldn't be a friend to any.

Bull, why do you use so many words to say nothing?

"The philosopher who said that work well done never needs doing over
never weeded a garden."
- Ray D. Everson


Are you better off than you were 30 years ago? 10 years ago? 1 year ago?

Thank Reaganomics/Thatcherism, a.k.a. Voodoo economics :O(
--
- Billy

Dept. of Defense budget: $663.8 billion
Dept. of Health and Human Services budget: $78.4 billion


Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed. This world in arms is not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children. This is not a way of life at all in any true sense. Under the clouds of war, it is humanity hanging on a cross of iron.
- Dwight D. Eisenhower, 16 April 1953

In article ,
Nad R wrote:

Tilling is a good way in my book for first time ground prepping. After that
no more tilling is needed ever. Be it for new lawn or garden.

"Double digging" is certainly to be recommended for a new garden, as it
speeds up the development of the bed, but it isn't necessary otherwise.
Rototillers create a hardpan, a layer of compacted soil, at the bottom
of the tilled zone. This may be acceptable for lawns, but for gardens it
is advised to break up this compacted zone. Insert a broad fork or
digging fork deeply into the soil at 6� intervals to break up any
compaction and to allow air and water below the depth of tillage.
Breaking this up with a fork permits the roots of plants to grow deeper
than the tilled area, and also allows plants to find water and nutrients
deep in the soil. Loosening allows for better percolation of rain water
and irrigation.
--



McGowan's Drinking Guide (Translated from the original German. It's
complicated, OK?)
Drinking Problems

Symptom Fault Action to be Taken

Everything has The pub is Panic.
gone dark closing

--

"For the first time in the history of the world, every human being is
now subjected to contact with dangerous chemicals, from the moment of
conception until death." - Rachel Carson, Silent Spring, 1962

In 1992, 2.2 billion pounds of pesticides were used in this country -
eight pounds for every man, woman, and child.
--


Are you better off than you were 30 years ago? 10 years ago? 1 year ago?

Thank Reaganomics/Thatcherism, a.k.a. Voodoo economics :O(
--
- Billy

Dept. of Defense budget: $663.8 billion
Dept. of Health and Human Services budget: $78.4 billion


Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed. This world in arms is not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children. This is not a way of life at all in any true sense. Under the clouds of war, it is humanity hanging on a cross of iron.
- Dwight D. Eisenhower, 16 April 1953

In article ,
Nad R wrote:

Tilling is a good way in my book for first time ground prepping. After that
no more tilling is needed ever. Be it for new lawn or garden.

"Double digging" is certainly to be recommended for a new garden, as it
speeds up the development of the bed, but it isn't necessary otherwise.
Rototillers create a hardpan, a layer of compacted soil, at the bottom
of the tilled zone. This may be acceptable for lawns, but for gardens it
is advised to break up this compacted zone. Insert a broad fork or
digging fork deeply into the soil at 6 inch intervals to break up any
compaction and to allow air and water below the depth of tillage.
Breaking this up with a fork permits the roots of plants to grow deeper
than the tilled area, and also allows plants to find water and nutrients
deep in the soil. Loosening allows for better percolation of rain water
and irrigation.
--

If you like weekends (8 hr./day & 40 hr./week), then thank a labor union.
They paid for it in blood. Real working class heros.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haymarket_affair

Taxes
Citizen$ --- Government --- Corporations --- Top 1% --Where the
money went
--

Gardening is civil and social, but it wants the vigor and freedom of the
forest and the outlaw.
- Henry David Thoreau
--
- Billy

Dept. of Defense budget: $663.8 billion
Dept. of Health and Human Services budget: $78.4 billion


Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed. This world in arms is not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children. This is not a way of life at all in any true sense. Under the clouds of war, it is humanity hanging on a cross of iron.
- Dwight D. Eisenhower, 16 April 1953

On Apr 25, 8:29*am, Billy wrote:

Bull, why do you use so many words to say nothing?

Damn, if your not the pot calling the kettle black!

On Apr 25, 10:33*am, Billy wrote:

Rototillers create a hardpan, a layer of compacted soil, at the bottom
of the tilled zone.

....leastwise that is what ya read in your eco-fringy blogs right?

and as for the worm mulch you so worry about , your chickens kill more
earthworms than that tiller will.

In article
,
Gunner wrote:

On Apr 25, 10:33*am, Billy wrote:

Rototillers create a hardpan, a layer of compacted soil, at the bottom
of the tilled zone.

...leastwise that is what ya read in your eco-fringy blogs right?

and as for the worm mulch you so worry about , your chickens kill more
earthworms than that tiller will.

As I understand it. Tilling or plowing at a constant depth will create
a hardpan. That¹s why God created a chisel plow. Some folks try not to
create one in the first place that is cheap and eco-warrior friendly.

--
Bill S. Jersey USA zone 5 shade garden

"The best fertilizer is the gardener's shadow." - Anon

On Mon, 25 Apr 2011 14:52:46 -0400, Bill who putters
wrote:

In article
,
Gunner wrote:

On Apr 25, 10:33*am, Billy wrote:

Rototillers create a hardpan, a layer of compacted soil, at the bottom
of the tilled zone.

...leastwise that is what ya read in your eco-fringy blogs right?

and as for the worm mulch you so worry about , your chickens kill more
earthworms than that tiller will.

As I understand it. Tilling or plowing at a constant depth will create
a hardpan.

Your understanding is incorrect, it's not even logical. What you
refer to as a "hardpan" is not created by tilling, the more compacted
soil was *always* there, it's a matter of relativity; tilled vs
untilled and the point where one ends and the other begins... there is
no logical way that tilling will *create* "hardpan" below the tilled
depth, only if the "hardpan" faeries dance a jig below ground while
wearing vibratory boots. If the soil has poor drainage due to
compaction that's a whole nother issue... perhaps one should till
deeper, or farm a different location. Another thing to consider,
annuals do not have roots that go very deep nor should they, which is
why farmers plow/till only to a certain depth each year depending on
which crop, and in fact what you call "hardpan' helps to retain more
nutrients and moisture for the crop.

On Apr 25, 11:52*am, Bill who putters wrote:
In article
,

*Gunner wrote:
On Apr 25, 10:33*am, Billy wrote:

Rototillers create a hardpan, a layer of compacted soil, at the bottom
of the tilled zone.

...leastwise that is what ya read in your eco-fringy blogs right?

and as for the worm mulch you so worry about , your chickens kill more
earthworms than that tiller will.

*As I understand it. *Tilling or plowing at a constant depth will create
a hardpan. *That¹s why God created a chisel plow. *


Some folks try not to
create one in the first place that is cheap and eco-warrior friendly.

As "MAY" fit your thinking, right? Change "will..." to "might..."
and you just might be correct, perhaps, maybe and yet, still never
be.

I find no fault with what Sheldon says here. The fat butt being
pulled along behind that tiller is going to compact that soil more
than those blades ever will in your little pea patch in the world.
Your world just doesn't fit mine BWP, regardless of how many times you
and Bro. bill tell me it must be so.

Too many variables that prohibit such an overly broad generalization.