Rossdale Farm – No till gardening is weird and very different from what we all grew up learning about gardening. Covering your soil with mulch? Not tilling and keeping the same rows year after year?
I finally decided to try one small corner of my garden. I hauled mulch out in my mini van to my garden, spread it around my strawberries and then left for winter.
The next spring it was really hot/dry – no rain and hitting 30C in April. The soil was hot, dry, crumbly and it hurt my wrists to dig in it with my garden shovel.
I had taken new strawberries out to the garden as I had developed a new strawberry bed to fill in. I decided to go back and fill in some of the strawberries that had winter kill. I moved the mulch, and hit the soil with my garden trowel bracing for the impact on my wrist……except it didn’t come. The soil was cool, soft and I could see the moisture in it. It felt like I was digging in soft butter. I was blown away.
I had my daughter take this photo for me as it was really the turning point for me. I sat there holding two handfuls of dirt, one from traditional gardening and one from no till, looking over my entire 26,000 sq ft garden thinking about all the work it would take to convert it.
That took six weeks in the spring of 2019 – I haven’t looked back since then! In fact, when I was encouraged to start a traditional garden to compare nutritional density of my veggies and size to my no till garden, I absolutely refused!
There are so many more benefits to no till than just the soil, click on the category “no till benefits” to learn more!
