NO - TILL Fall TIPS

As winter approaches, readying a no-dig garden for the end of its growing season presents one of the biggest benefits of no-till: It's easy! Here's what you should know.

- BY MICHELLE BRUHN

I was first drawn to no-dig gardening for one simple reason: It's easy! And while the practices may seem like lazy gardening, there's meaningful science behind what we don't do in a no-till garden. And when I saw with my own eyes the results touted by so many books and research papers, I became hooked.

I love talking and sharing about no-dig gardening because it helps us shift our thoughts from how we garden to how nature grows best. And so far, taking cues from nature has always proved the right decision.

WHAT TO KNOW ABOUT NO-DIG

In many ways no-dig simply means building the soil up instead of digging down. We want to leave the soil microbes and all their infinitely webbed relationships intact. So the less digging we do, the better.

At the end of the growing season, no-dig affects how we harvest and how we clean up the garden for its dormant season of rest.

HARVESTING, NOT PULLING