posted 7 years ago
15 years ago I started out with really poor soil, if one would call it that. Every couple of weeks for the first year I tilled in a 3" layer of shredded organic material, anything and everything. I'd grind up grass, light twigs, leaves, small brush, whatever with the old lawnmower. Some was lush green grass clippings, high in moisture and nitrogen. The rest was dry, stemmy, or woody. I'd also tilled in fresh horse manure which I hand gathered from neighbors' pastures. Yes, it was work. I didn't try growing crops the first year, but I did hand scatter oats as a cover crop so that the ground would be covered in the areas I couldn't till frequently. The sprouted oats got tilled in before they grew much taller than 8"-10". I didn't have compost back then. I just gathered and ground up every bit of organic material I could get my hands on and rototiller it in.
To this day I can see the difference between the area that got this treatment and the areas that didn't. The area where I spent a year tilling in ground up organic material still out produces my untreated garden areas, and the soil maintains moisture much better.
Conclusion........for me, spending that year repetitively tilling improved my soil far better than any other method I've tried. Just my own observation on my own homestead farm. Now would this work for clay? I don't know.
I'm well aware that there is an anti-tilling sentiment among permies. They remind me of it on my blog from time to time. But I tend to do what works best for me in my situation. Thus I lightly till between each crop, incorporating more organic material and other soil amendments before planting the next crop. That means that every two to four months most of my garden area gets tilled.
It's never too late to start! I retired to homestead on the slopes of Mauna Loa, an active volcano. I relate snippets of my endeavor on my blog : www.kaufarmer.blogspot.com