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Kototilling is best done sparingly, perhaps just initially and shallowly to break sod in a first time garden. It aerates the soil, stirs up an incredible amount of microbial activity and releases a host of plant nutrients. How many stories have you heard of people’s incredibly productive first-year gardens, the garden never so abundant again?
In fact, more nutrients then the plants can use are brought up and the overabundant microbial life bums out, so they are all wasted. Repeated tilling robs the soil bank of humus, minerals and micro-organisms — it’s like throwing the soil’s wealth away.
Better, though much harder work initially, is to dig the soil by hand, at least a foot deep, and then layer the soil back in with sharp sand, peat moss, compost and organic fertilizers. The best methods usually take time and care, and this is no exception, yielding a desirable soil which shouldn’t have to be tilled or worked deeply again, provided it is cared for and not compacted with the weight of equipment or from stepping on it.
Just think of all the creatures living in your soil, in structured layers much like a complex tall building, where everyone has set up a home or business. Then imagine this building being turned upside down and smashed every year — well, you get the picture!
Fertilizer and cover crops are two more considerations in building humus. As they are
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