Should soil be tilled?

Tilling a garden means you get in and dig over the soil to about a spade’s depth. If you come across any big clods, you break them up and keep on chopping. And then, to fluff it up some more, you mix through some compost, which also helps to improve moisture retention while ‘supporting soil life’ and ‘building soil structure’.

Put down the shovel gardeners, there’s an alternative approach that involves no digging, and it’s proving to be better for the soil and the plants. So how do the roots, water and air penetrate?

No-dig gardening

With the no-dig gardening method, compost is simply spread onto the soil surface as mulch. From there, the worms and other soil organisms do what they do naturally – head to the surface to harvest the organic material, break it down and incorporate it into the soil. Their movements create channels, and their excretions help to bind soil particles to form aggregates and build structures. The spaces between the aggregates allow the water, air and roots to move through the soil.

Every time we till the soil, any structure that has been created is dismantled. This eventually leads to compaction and anaerobic conditions. There’s a whole wonderful ecosystem beneath our feet, and whenever we dig up the soil, we destroy homes and create fatalities.

When the soil is left undisturbed, soil organisms are able to proliferate – that means more worms and more microbes – and the conditions of the soil continues to get better and better. All you need to do is keep on feeding the top soil. Give it a try!

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