i borrowed a friend's tiller and began my garden adventure today turning over the soil behind my place. some of it was tough and i turned up a lot of old junk, including bottles, cans, pieces of hardware, lots of stones in one place and even a large sheet of wire mesh.
after about three hours my arms were jelly but i had a pretty good handle on how to run the tiller. at first i struggled with it mostly holding it back from leaping across my patch but then i figured out if you get it good and buried it will slowly creep along chewing up the soil in front of it slowly and completely.
later in the evening i picked up a small permaculture booklet whose first words on gardening were, "don't till!" too late. but, i won't till again, i promise. from what i've read, it's not healthy for the soil. i'm pretty sure, though i don't know, that my soil doesn't have a lot going for it at this point anyway, being almost entirely sand with very little organic material. i saw no worms or insects, nothing that indicated activity that i was destroying. of course, what insect in its right mind would hang around with the forks of a tiller heading its way?today i'm going to level the site. it slopes about 8 degrees north which will substantially reduce the amount of energy it absorbs when the sun is low to the south. i'm hoping that the tilling will be the last time i use a fossil fuel burning tool.
card: 4 of wands: done: celebration, freedom, excitement! woo hoo!
1 comment:
I till but usually only once at the start of the season. I'm thinking about going to raised beds which will eliminate the need for the tiller altogether.
If your soil isn't great you could haul in a load of manure or compost. You can till it in or leave it and let the micro critters incorporate it but tilling it will get it in there sooner.
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