Orin Martin, manager of the historic Alan Chadwick Garden at UC Santa Cruz, discusses the benefits and drawbacks of tilling soil and no-till alternatives.
i also have horrible hardpan clay soil and tried no-till for years and it was like beating my head against a brick wall.. if you just put compost on top it would dry up and disappear.. started working amendments into the soil and have seen drastic improvement..
Thanks Orin, good to see you and your beautiful soil. About to get a homestead going and will be using the double dig style of beds. I have a bunch of young grasses growing where I weed whacked, so I may run my rabbit tractor over the tops first to build organic matter.
I still have no idea wether or not turning over of the top soil, maybe down to 10 cm, is good or bad? I have been always of the idea that by turning over the top soil, we would help soil drainage and aeration. Please advise. Thanks.
Ahhh... cover crops. They are so beneficial for your soil and plants. In a no-till garden, you simply "chop and drop" the cover crop as demonstrated in this video. In the description section of the video are several more cover crop videos to watch: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-r9VmyQbvhL0.html Here's is a list of videos by title on the UCSC RU-vid channel. Browse the titles and you'll find lots of videos on cover crops and how to incorporate them into the soil: agroecology.ucsc.edu/resources/instructional-videos.html
First, there is no right answer. Second, ideally soil is a living thing and working it can be beneficial to soil health. Third, there is a whole lot the presenter isn’t telling us. For that we need a formal class on soil.
