No Till is a New Trend

No till does not necessarily mean less work, at least when you first set it up.  But it is better for your soil ecology.

Soil is just another ecological environment with specific microflora living in its own area and doing its particular job.  When you till you disturb this environment, mix things up, destroy life, and the worms don't like it either.

By mimicking nature's method of building the soil environment you help support the ecosystem that helps support your gardening efforts.  It's a win/win.

The following process is used in permaculture and is called sheet mulching.  It is best to begin this process in the Fall.  (Remember this in September...:0)

Start the process by putting down a very thick layer of mulch over a closely mowed defined area.  Leave the material you have mown as your first layer of mulch. 

After you have defined your area, if the ground is particularly hard and compact I would use a garden fork and just puncture the ground to create drainage holes.  Do not turn over the soil, just puncture the ground like you were aerating.  Then water the ground thoroughly.

The first layer you are going to put down will be a layer of cardboard.  Remove all staples and as much of the tape as you can. 

FYI, worms love cardboard.  They love to crawl into the channels and seem to like the glue that holds the cardboard together.  The cardboard is a great initial weed and grass barrier, will take a good long time to decompose and will provide any worms in the area some terrific housing.  Make sure that your edges overlap enough to not compromise your barrier.  Wet the cardboard completely.  This will help in the decomposing process and any worms that take up housekeeping will need the moisture to survive.

Next lay down a thick layer of grass clippings, straw, leaves, and manure.  Keep the grass clippings well mixed with your other material.  You want this layer to be at least 1 to 2 feet deep.  Water well.  If you have it available or can afford it you can cover with a layer of quality compost and/or quality top soil.  Water well again. 

To water this material well you will need to leave a sprinkler running for a few hours.  How long will depend on how well you watered as you were building your layers and how dry the material was that you built your layers out of.  Dig into an area and see if everything through the layers is wet.  Moisture is a very important part of the decomposing process.

If you want, you can then cover with landscape fabric which allows water and air to reach your composting layers beneath.

If you start this process in the Fall then by the following Spring you should have a great planting area to work with.  If the cardboard layer still has not decomposed you can cut a hole for planting through.

This method of building soil creates an environment which when left undisturb allows for maintaining soil structure and the addition of nutrients.  At any point in the process above you could add a sprinkling of alfalfa meal, alfalfa straw (no spray please), feather meal, or any other organic fertilizer source. This would only add to the meal you are providing for the worms and naturally occuring microorganisms that are helping to build your soil.

Once you've established your no-till garden you will not disturb it except for the area where you plant your seeds, seedlings, or plants.  Keep the area well mulched to continue adding organic matter to your soil ecology, thus continuing to feed the microflora in the soil and to control weeds.

Another alternative to putting down landscape fabric is to house your chickens, duck, geese, etc over the garden area.  This will help to control any bugs, slugs and other undesirables your fowl find tastey and they will leave behind their very desirable droppings to add to the soil biology. 

Nature just has a way, our job is to find the best way to use it to our own device.