I intended to replace my 25 year old tiller when it died three years ago, but I changed my mind after I made this discovery. Following mowing and/or tarping, once over with the broad fork and once over with the wheel hoe is good enough to plant in, and there are a whole lot less weed seedlings afterwards. The broad fork may not be fast, but with a slow steady pace one can cover a fair sized garden in an afternoon, and one can do that after a rain when it is too wet to use the tiller. Also, it would take three passes with a tiller to go as deep as the broad fork loosens the soil.

thanks to you and the living soul handbook I've gone to 3 goals: 1: disturb the soil as Little as possible, 2: keep the soil 'planted' for photosynthesis and 3: keep the soil 'covered' at all times! Then pray and plan!!😂

Great advise on fighting the weeds. We all can use that. My dad used to make us kids weed an acre of garden. He usually plowed it and disc'ed it the day of planting. We usually lost the battle sometime in June.

Preach that tarp love, brother! You know I’m a fan of minimal soil disturbance! Good info, as always! Hope you, Ms. Brooklyn, and the kids had a great Christmas and New Year!

The issue with tilling is loosing mycroryzal fungi. You can replace by adding a fungal innoculant or growing your own. Add compost tea to add bacteria, protozoa, nematodes, and fungal spores then top dress with compost. After seeing Wood Prarie on your channel I used Wood Prarie last year and am waiting for my order to arrive.

Since I expanded my garden area I'm very much team tiller 😂 I till, wait 2 weeks and then till again. Then I plant my starts a week after.

I use leaf mulch in Spring planting- keeps weeds down. Then in Fall till that in and remulch for winter Tll in Spring etc My raised bed are so rich with loads of organics

I use a garden claw to mix in my fertilizers before planting a crop. I usually give the raised beds some time between fertilizing and planting so the soil can break down the fertilizer. My raised beds are too small to use a tiller, so I do it manually. Thanks for the video, very helpful information.

So many gardeners these days, especially these hippie, everything needs to be green, 100% organic, or die gardeners speak badly about tilling, and push way to many myths. Theirs absolutely nothing wrong with plowing, or tilling, as long as you take good care of your soil. The main key is to not have any soil that is completely barren and exposed to the sun with no roots growing in it. The key to healthy and happy soil microbiology is roots in the ground. Every fall, once my gardening season is over, I cut everything out at ground level. I never pull my stuff out, roots and all, I leave the roots and below ground stems in. Then each fall I add a thick layer of composted manure, about 2 and a half to 3 inches, and then I seed in a cover crop of crimson clover and hairy vetch so theirs roots in the ground, and no bare soil. Then each spring, right before the start of gardening season, I mow down the cover crop, leaving everything there including the cut down stuff, and roots, then add another good layer of composted manure, and then till in everything thoroughly, and then begin putting my garden plants in. I also mulch my garden plants with straw, which helps with multiple different things. The straw not only keeps the bare soil covered and protected from the sun,but it also helps keep moisture in under each plant, and shades the soil from the sun to keep the roots cool, and it helps keep down weeds. This is my process for a full year, every year, rinse, wash, repeat, and I have incredible, rich, healthy soil that grows healthy, productive plants. It really really helps that I have my own compost pile, and my own chickens for manure, which makes the best compost, and saves money on all these crappy, over priced, store bought compost's. Now, the way these huge industrial farms do things, they really are slowly killing their soil, because they usually don't compost, or mulch and they keep bare soil all throughout the fall and winter, completely exposed to the sun, with no roots in the ground, which kills the soil and turns it into basically dust, and then the wind blows away said dust, which leads to top soil erosion. This is exactly why these industrial size farmers have worse and worse yeilds every year. If these industrial farmers don't start changing their practices, their going to end up with soil that not even the toughest weeds can grow in.

Love love love! Need so much more of this info and reminders. Travis, thank you for always teaching us the best info.

We are trying to go no till garden. Yes, it will take several years as we have ultra hard clay where we live. That said we are now in the process of rototilling the garden once lightly. Going to let it set and this Spring putting in transplants.

Armadillos till my garden whether I like it or not...well...my mulch. When I moved here over a year ago I tossed bulk greens seeds all over. I noticed few grew. Then I checked and discovered this lot was once a hill and had been leveled down to hard red concrete and gravel. So my awesome rural Louisiana lot is the worst in the state besides paved ones. Awesome! Then I saw one spot where an armadillo had been digging. It had an area with a tiny amount of topsoil 2 to 3 inches deep. So I started by planting the worst Red Ripper peas ever seen in Louisiana along with similar Purple Hulls and dry Blackeyed Peas from the store, horrible green beans, and five types of failed pole beans. My trellis for those is an old metal tent frame of some sort I found. A jackhammer couldn`t get a hole for a pole here. It took me three days to hack out a small failed 8 inch deep hole to start a fig tree, but to save the small tree required piling potting soil, pine straw, and grass clippings around it several feet deep as it grew. I tilled one spot for Red Rippers. They grew, produced nothing, and now not even grass will grow in that area. I`ve been throwing grass clippings in the "garden" mixed with chopped leaves and pine straw. I sprinkled "organic" potting soil over this and spray it daily with the hose. It will take years and years of hard effort, and I have physical disabilities due to a car accident, to ever grow food here. I can`t afford a load of soil. I have to order whatever soil I buy, and oddly enough I`ve tried 5 different brands paying about 10 bucks per gallon, and all of them kill everything I`ve planted in them. I`ve tested PH, added fertilizer, added ash, and I basically got scammed. I`ve never seen this. I know something is being deliberately added to these potting soils that poisons all vegetables and herbs. My mustard greens have don`t very well in the garden since October and I`m getting at least SOME turnips and a few radishes. Aparagus yard long beans produced a few, so next year those will be my pole beans. I managed to get a quart of shelled Purple Hulls, so next year those will be planted. I will NEVER make the mistake of planting Red Rippers again in a vegetable patch! No wonder my parents never grew them. They were the worst peas I`ve ever seen. Well...when they FINALLY made a few peas after 6 months...enough for seeds...never enough to bother trying to eat. And winter greens won`t grow where they were planted!

Potatoes! Couple months back I ordered Baltic Rose again, plus Sarpo Mira, Prairie Blush and Rose Gold for the first time. Had really good luck in raised beds I hilled last year. Not sure where I got that idea from but glad you're six weeks ahead of me so I get my best ideas early!

Bull, my garden spot has been tilled for 60 years and is as healthy and productive as ever.

Can't remember where I read this, but if you're gonna till, a shallow depth of 2-3 inches doesn't do much damage to your biology.

We have several areas we plant in, we had beans in our main one last summer, , we plan to turn the ladies loose on it and use a stirrup hoe on it. Take advantage of all that. Another area , not sure yet if we'll till or hoe. We still have a bit of time to work on that. Our spring garden will be in raised beds, in ground wont start til after mid April.

Great info. I made that mistake last year. Havagudun Trav.

I look forward to potato planting video

Starting a new bed this year. Tarp for 6 weeks to kill most of the pasture grass. Till deeply. Tarp 4 weeks. Add 6” compost and char. Till again. Plant spring cover crop. Terminate. Plant summer cover crop. Terminate. Plant fall cover crop. Terminate. Then determine what I will do to put into production as a no till plot in 2025.

You had some extra fertilizer at 7:17 lol

If you don't have a tarp, cover with cardboard & wet it down real good a couple times. It works great!

Weeding is the big one! Happy to get a used Troy built Pony last year. Also bought a stirrup hoe. Tarping is completely New!?

Looks like you have a good symbiotic relationship with the chickens. Exchanging greens for fertilizer. You ever think about getting a 2nd chicken tractor for more chickens? You can also get more meat, eggs, and fertilizer out of the deal. You’ll be more self-sustaining. GOAL: Buy nothing! Ma-Nature might be throwing you a hint. You might just have to plan to always have a cover crop available for the chickens.

What does the University of Ga. Say about this method?

Hey Travis, are you all ever gonna, say who won the decorate your garden for the holidays contest? Thanks & much L❤VE from Kentucky!

I live in Gray, Ga. Any recommendations to buy compost soil?

Thanks Travis. I hadn't even thought about the tiller stirring up the weed seeds right before planting. Being up here in Canada, planting wouldn't happen till June or July. I will usually till early once the frost is out of the ground. After tilling, would putting a tarp down once the weed seeds start kill them off enough?

Green cover recommends keeping the tarping down to less than a week to preserve soil biology. Thoughts?

When asked how long you leave your chickens on the field, what does 2 rounds exactly mean?

Ho about mow mulch, double bottom plowing with a coulter attachment, tarp, till later?

Oh My.... Bella photo bombed you again! Travis, i have a question about the Olle beds. I bought some of the 17" models to replace our ailing/rotting wood framed raised beds. I'm debating on using the existing soil from the beds, which has been improved every year or starting fresh will something like the ProMix or Sunshine Mix blended with peat moss, additional perlite and vermiculite for fresh weed seed free start in those beds. I've also considered a bottom half from the existing beds, topped off with fresh for the Olle beds. What are your thoughts on this.

I’m a little unclear about the timing of tarping. When do you actually do it? Is it right after tilling or wait until the weeds show up?

Do you have any hawk or varmit pressure on your chickens on plots?

How thick should a silage tarp be?

Damn I just realized I put WAY too many potatoes in each of my grow bags 😂. I found a big tote full of potatoes at a family members house on Thanksgiving and they were all already chitted pretty heavily. So I went ahead and threw them in some grow bags. I put wayyyyy more than 1lb per grow bag. lol well maybe I’ll have lots of taters in those bags 😅

Does anyone know where the tarps are purchased from? I can’t find those anywhere.

does biofumigation do the same as the old garden farmers in my area plowed moth balls into their soil and never had pest problems?

Do you ever find animals nesting under the tarp, like mice or snakes?

What did you do to get a 35:1 return on potatoes. Human sacrifice????????

so just to be absolutely clear, you're NOT bringing the chickens up here to Massachusetts, to work my garden? LOL!

Hey Travis. Do you have fire ants in your area? If I put a tarp down for any period of time there is a really good chance I will have many ant mounds.