Let Worms Till Your Garden Beds

It’s simply not necessary (or desirable) to till garden beds

I was chatting today about composting with a dear horticulture friend when the guinea pig of tilling came up . We laugh about how we tell people that we ’re “ work-shy ” gardeners who do n’t want to ferment that hard in our gardens . While that ’s a straightaway and easy resolution , it ’s really only a half - truth . The whole trueness is that it ’s simply not necessary ( or desirable ) to till garden beds . Turns out that Mother Nature lie with how to coalesce land with the best of them .

The compost that you bestow to the beds can be placed and disperse out right on top of the soil ; no intermixture is need . Let your favorable neighborhood worms do the heavy lifting for you . Worms are right at their job , and if you ’re till with any geometrical regularity you could be killing up to 90 % of your garden insect .

This is n’t a good thing ( in case you were wondering ) . You want worms for chemical decomposition reaction , aeration , and filtration in the garden . till also kills other beneficial creatures such as spider . In the context of a garden , spiders are very desirable .

While there ’s nothing awry with plow compost or other soil amendments into the first couple inches of filth , mysterious - tilling ( roto - tilling ) is jolly of a controversial practice . Deep - tilling describes the fade and dicing of soil particles over and over . And accuracy be told , roto - tiller have their place . If you need to bring out up that front lawn , go ahead and give it a go - over — but just once , OK ? There are other instances that call for deep - tilling , but as a general practice , it ’s taboo anymore .

So in one camp there are the nurseryman who believe that tilling is a necessary procedure to help make a loamy dirt . The gardeners in the other coterie say that tilling breaks up the totality in the soil , not to mention messing with the relationship between mychorrhizae and plant roots . I personally fall into the no - tilling - gardener - category . But then , I ’m kind of indolent .

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