10 more reasons your garden should be no-till

As if the first 3 reasons weren't enough, here are 10 more advantages to no-till I thought of.

Feb 11, 2025

If you’ve read my last three posts, you already know some of the key reasons I changed my garden to no-till…

But there’s more…

Maybe not reasons as much as advantages I discovered over the last 15 years of practicing no-till.

*Note, many of these advantages assume no-till is coupled with mulch of some kind, as it typically is in the home garden. Even without mulch, many are still applicable.

Here they are… 10 more advantages to no-till.

Earlier access in the spring. This is a big deal for a market gardener like me! Tillage requires waiting until the ground is dry, which can be as late as May in my area. But avoiding tillage allows me to seed as soon as the ground isn’t frozen, sometimes as early as February! This both gives me earlier harvests, and also spreads out the spring work load. Win win!
Reduces the need for watering (especially when mulched). Tilled soil beaten by the direct rays of the sun will rapidly lose moisture to evaporation, but a mulched no-till soil can stay moist for weeks after watering.
Reduces erosion. The broken aggregation of a freshly tilled soil leaves it vulnerable to washing away in the heavy rains. This is precisely why my local river, the Susquehanna, turns brown every spring!
Reduces splash on the plants. Just as with erosion, tilled soil is susceptible to moving with water, and some of that movement ends up back on the plants if you’ve tilled close to plants. No problem on sweet corn, but not so great on lettuce!
Keeps the soil cooler through the summer. Have you ever noticed that disease and pest pressures almost always increases as soon as the summer heat hits in July? In the hot and humid summers where I live, many plants slow down photosynthesis significantly during high temperatures, making them more susceptible to disease and pest pressure. A mulched, no-till soil stays cooler than bare soil, keeping plants cooler and healthier during the hottest days of summer.*
Reduces mud. Nothing makes mud like a freshly tilled soil mixed with water! An intact soil held together by good aggregation and plant roots won't soften into a muddy slush as quickly as a freshly tilled soil. And if it's covered with mulch, all the better!
Doesn't propagate weeds via root division. Dock or comfrey, for example, will grow from tiny bits of root material left in the ground, as will rhizomous weeds like quackgrass. Tilling propagates these weeds by shredding their roots into many pieces, allowing each piece to grow into a new plant.
Allows plants to reseed themselves. I’ve heard of gardeners maintaining perpetual patches of arugula, cilantro, or lettuce by simply allowing them to reseed themselves. Talk about an easy way to garden! Tilling would not only bury some of the dropped seeds, but also bring new weeds seeds to the surface that would mix with the desired plant. This also works with summer savory, basil, dill, fennel, chamomile, and I’m sure there are more. I’ve learned to enjoy watching occasional desired plants sprouting here and there in my garden (thanks to not tilling), and sometimes allowing them to grow for the season where they sprouted.
Doesn’t create a hardpan. If you look closely at the way tiller tines work, you’ll see they’re constantly putting downward pressure on the soil because of their rotation toward the soil. This eventually creates a layer of compaction called a hardpan that plant roots struggle to reach, restricting their ability to grow and mine water and nutrients from deep in the soil.
Allows for more efficient use of space. In my mom’s garden, we grew single rows of plants a full tiller width apart so that we could use our tiller for cultivation. This meant a good 2/3 to 3/4 of our garden was empty! In a no-till system, rows can be spaced closely in 3-4 foot wide beds with as little as 1-2 feet of walking space between beds. This means you can grow at least 2-3 times as much in the same space!

There you have it.

If you haven’t figured it out by now, I’m a big fan of no-till techniques! I’ve experienced and witnessed the benefits myself, and I wouldn’t do it any other way.

Having said that, don’t be too dogmatic about no-till!

Remember, no-till is not the goal, but a healthy, thriving garden with soil rich in microbiology and good fungi that produces flavorful, disease-resistant, nutrient dense plants.

No-till is simply a way of getting there.

Obviously, I argue it’s a better way of getting there than tillage. However, I’ll also be the first to promote limited tillage in certain contexts. Note I said limited, not a long-term repeated strategy.

Your Garden Coach

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