February 23, 2022

Tilling your garden or farm field using a tractor or walk-behind tiller is the worst act you can perform in relation to the health of your soil. Despite the still widespread act of tillage on large (and even small) conventional and organic farms across the United States, the topic of tillage and soil health has been extensively researched and proven to be detrimental for the future of our crop systems.

I will ask you here to please do your own research — and I don’t mean Google Search (although you will find good sources if you know where to look). Please spend time reading books written by agronomists, biologists and practicing farmers that have real-life experience; along with scientific, peer-reviewed articles on the subject of no-till and regenerative agriculture. Here, I’ve compiled a list of my favorite Regenerative/No-Till Agriculture Books. I’ve read every book on that list, which has helped form my understanding of the information I provide in this blog post, along with 10 years of experience growing over 150 home gardens and over one dozen urban and rural vegetable and flower farms — in BOTH till and no-till settings. I’ve seen it all.

I also recommend reading/bookmarking this blog post by Little Green Yard: No Dig Gardening: Embracing the Magic of Natural Garden Nurturing to learn another gardener’s take on no-till gardening methods.

For those that do till their soil, this post may feel like a criticism or jab. Please rather consider it as a helpful, constructive suggestion from someone who has spent years of their life dedicated to growing no-till, regenerative production farms. This is an opportunity to learn about the role that soil biology plays in our gardens, and frankly, our entire lives. Regardless, I expect I’ll receive some angry comments just like when I implored people to stop using Miracle-Gro. Many people choose to be offended over these types of conversations that go against the conventional grain, pun intended. I’m sticking to the science.

Most of all, it’s important to understand why we choose no-till.

I’ve explained, in depth, why tilling is so bad for soil health in this blog post: Healthy Organic Soil + Soil Food Web, Part 1

Short Version - Tilling is bad for your garden/farm because…

The act of tilling breaks apart valuable soil structure and fungal mycelial connections, leading to compaction, flooding and massive soil erosion.
- This is especially problematic in areas of drought. When soil structure is destroyed by tillage, organic matter and microbes are burned up. This means the soil has zero to no Soil Moisture Holding Capacity, or the ability to retain deep stores of snow melt and rainwater for later use. In drought-stricken areas (which are predicted to become more widespread), crops die, or never even germinate, from lack of water.
Tillage exposes valuable soil microbial life that is sensitive to oxygen, killing it.
When healthy microbial life is non-existent in soil, crops do not have a nutrient source, nor are they able to defend themselves naturally against pathogens and pests. The lack of healthy soil microbes is a big reason (beyond corporate influence) why synthetic fertilizers, pesticides, fungicides and herbicides are used. It’s a perpetual system as all of these harmful inputs contribute to destroying more soil microbial life.
Tillage releases carbon that is stored in the soil in the form of CO2, contributing to carbon emissions and human-induced/anthropogenic climate change.

There is more, but that’s enough for now!

It’s also important to debunk the false statements I commonly hear people say about tilling.

Myths about tilling

Tilling aerates the soil in the spring
- Wrong. Tilling breaks apart air and water pockets that have been naturally created by microbes, earthworms and other insects, causing compaction and lack of airflow for root systems. These creatures are natural tillers and the only tillage system you need.

Tilling makes the ground easier to work
- Wrong. Tillage inevitably compacts soil to the point of it being unworkable. Then the thought is, tilling is the only way to prep every spring because the soil is so compacted. The system of tillage perpetuates itself in this way.
There’s no way I’ll be able to start a new garden unless I till it
- There are several ways you can start a new garden without a tiller. I am starting an entire new flower farm in Spring 2022 with a planned production of 2-3 acres of cut flowers. I will not be using a single piece of machinery except a lawn mower. Sheet Mulching and Silage Tarping are two of the best ways to get going without a tiller!
Tilling is the only way I can control weeds
- No it isn’t. In fact, tilling exposes dormant weed seeds and makes your weed problems worse. Learn how to control weeds without tilling here.
Tilling is the only way I can incorporate my cover crops
- Wrong. Our preferred way of terminating cover crops is to mow them down prior to seed setting, then finishing for 1-3 weeks with permeable landscape fabric or a silage tarp. Rather than incorporating into the soil, we top the cover crop residue with a layer of compost or composted manure.
- Large operations (hundreds to thousands of acres) that are cover cropping would benefit from mowing or grazing livestock to lessen the cover crop height (biomass will be chopped/left behind by the mower or in the form of manure by the animals). Then, implement a seed drill right into the mowed cover crop rather than plowing. A recommended read is: Dirt to Soil: One Family’s Journey into Regenerative Agriculture by Gabe Brown. He is a pioneer of large-scale regenerative agriculture.
All farmers till their soil
- No… Lots of us don’t!

I hope this has shed some light on why tilling is bad for the health of our soils, or that it sparked interest in further learning. Perhaps you’ll pick up one of those books I recommended from your local library. Or, maybe you’ll even keep your tiller in the shed this season and experiment building a super healthy garden without it!