Let radishes do the "tilling" for you. Try white icicle or Daikons. What
you don't harvest composts in place.
Kelly Houston wrote: > > >What should I look for when buying a tiller to use on my yard and garden. > > How about not buying one at all? > > No really... > > Tillers are big, smelly, polluting machines. Very good results can be had from > no-till methods, even on very hard soil. The slow way is to literally not till > at all--lay down lots of mulch/manure/other organic matter and let it be: > worms and other critters will eventually work it in the soil. More expensive, > but in the same vein, is to build raised beds filled with nice compost mix: > this gives you immediate planting beds without tilling. Finally, my personal > favorite is to add lots of organic material and just encourage it a little with > a gardening fork: just rock back and forth on the fork to "crack" the soil > below here and there. Clay to loam in two seasons, I swear. > Tilling will A-damage the trees whose roots have invaded (so you should remove > the tree if it's such a problem--you'll have to anyway when it sickens/dies > from having it's roots tilled) and B) disturb whatever natural balance is > already in the soil--in fact, in high clay soils, the tiller may actually > create what amounts to hardpan at the depth of the tiller. Wet clay will even > break down and become less permeable if it is tilled. (This has to do with > soil structures on a microscopic level--I can explain if you want to know the > details) > > I say, if you really have your heart set on it, rent a tiller and till a test > plot. See if it has the effect you're after. Remember, tilling will bring up > long-buried weed seeds, so the weeds you till under will likely make way for > new ones. Also, you will get a feel for how much work these work saving > devices are... > > Kelly