I layer unfinished compost on top of my soil through fall and winter, then just plant right into it come spring. My plants love it.

You can not get chicken soup from chicken poop.
So if one has clay & rocks, but no humus or loam of any kind.
If one has sand or sugar sand with no humus or loam of any kind. Then that ground has no soil web to sustain a plant or a garden. So first you need humus & nutrients to even think about the soil or a soil web to sustain a plant in no till/ light till(2")garden.
You have all of this, Great, now you can check out no till.
Before most of the pro organic/ no till writers got out of high school, Ruth Stout & Robert Rodale were working the organic no till garden.
If you are going to try this you could learn from "No-Work Garden Book" by Ruth Stout from Rodale press, Inc.
Ms. Stout was 80 years young in 1971. My copy was a
seventh printing - August 1973.

I have not tilled compost into my garden soil for many years, like nancyjean I lay compost on top of the soil and the Soil Food Web works it in for me. I discovered this process in my perennial beds where the only way to work compost into the soil would be to rempve the plants and then replant which kind of defeats having a perennial bed.
Even if you started with a dead soil, no soil Food Web, and plunked down compost you would, eventualy, have a very active Soil Food Web working your soil for you.

If you are dealing with raised beds, then the issues about tilling or not tilling in amendments are moot. By definition, raised bed soils are not the same as inground soils, so issues that typically arise from tilling - breaking down of structure, creating a underlayer of compaction - do not apply. Go ahead and mix the soils in the raised beds to the appearance/consistency you prefer. I would avoid excessive tilling or cultivation anyway, simply because it fluffs the soil too much (you need to allow time for settling) and it can disturb or disrupt populations of beneficial soil organisms.

Generally I till materials into the gardens when I add compost/organic materials. I understand the reasons why no-till may be beneficial but if in the end the material has been worked into the soil by natural methods, then the ultimate goal is to have the stuff in the soil anyways. Tilling it in just gets it to that state quicker and IMO, more evenly.

I'm not convinced there is a right or wrong on this one unless one is excessive in either direction.

Lloyd

If you are dealing with raised beds, then the issues about tilling or not tilling in amendments are moot. By definition, raised bed soils are not the same as inground soils, so issues that typically arise from tilling - breaking down of structure, creating a underlayer of compaction - do not apply. Go ahead and mix the soils in the raised beds to the appearance/consistency you prefer.

I appreciate the feedback, but I don't understand this. Can you elaborate on what you mean by the issues are moot? I'm in my fourth year gardening my raised bed. I've got the soil all nicely ammended (I think) after 3 years of tilling in stuff. Now I'm ready to give it a rest, and let the soil structure get established. Your comment seems to imply that will never happen, so don't bother trying.

An inch is not much compost. I typically spread at least 4 inches of semi-finished compost on my raised beds and leave it there.

Just plant through it.

rt, the issues raised regarding tilling - and they are valid - are typically limited to inground soils rather than raised beds containing imported soil. A raised bed is much more similar to a very large container and the drainage, soil composition, adding of amendments, etc. are treated quite differently than if you were working with a planting area in the ground. So tilling - or not tilling - really doesn't apply.

If you don't want to till, don't. Layering on an inch or two of compost each season will just serve to replace necessary organic matter and should be no impedement to plant growth, as long as it is more or less 'finished'. Many folks - like the previous poster and myself as well - use compost almost like a mulch. You can work it in if you want to but it is not necessary.

Does that clarify? :-))

rt, the issues raised regarding tilling - and they are valid - are typically limited to inground soils rather than raised beds containing imported soil. A raised bed is much more similar to a very large container and the drainage, soil composition, adding of amendments, etc. are treated quite differently than if you were working with a planting area in the ground. So tilling - or not tilling - really doesn't apply.

...

Does that clarify? :-))

Thanks again for the post. I'll probably just leave a layer of compost on top of the garden in the future. The tilling issue is still clear as mud for me, though ;-). I assumed that over time, the worms and microbes and other friendlies in my raised bed would get fat and happy, just as if they were in-ground, if I stopped tilling the soil. The fact that I imported the soil, or that the top of the garden lies a foot above the native soil didn't seem to matter.

RT:
Your gardening is doing fine... you are mis-understanding though...

Keep adding compost to top off your beds each year and you are golden......

if .... you want to till your raised bed,just because you get a wild hair. go for it, there is just no benefit other that perhaps it looks more fluffy (and that isn't all that beneficial).. you are doing fine...keep it up ;-)

Here is a link that might be useful: mixing up the soil in a raised bed (see all nine)

Even though I have 2 4 x 4 x 4 compost bins they do not procude enough compost each year for me to put 4 inches of compost on my planting beds, and most people cannot produce that much either. I do put about 1/2 inch of compost on the planting beds I have and then cover that compost with shredded leaves (what the compost is mostly made of) which during the summer the Soil Food Web works into the soil as well as the compost, and that in my sand is enough to maintain the 6 o 8 percent humus levels that work best.

Let me try to clear up the mud. The idea (one of them) behind raised beds is that you don't walk on them and compact the soil. Therefore, you don't really "need" to till. If you like to till, knock yourself out. But if you are concentrating your organic matter on the raised bed planting area, you should have some pretty great soil going on. I have had raised beds for years. At first I just scooped/piled the soil up. Now I actually have sides to my beds.

In the spring I top the beds off with enough finished compost to make them level with the side boards. That amount varies by year and by bed. I can literally sit on the side of my bed and turn the soil with a hand spade. No tiller required. Not even a pitch fork is needed.

I believe that is what gardengal meant when she said tilling was "moot". But if tilling makes you feel better, go for it. Everyone has their own way of doing things.

There is no need to till ground level beds either, if they are planned and laid out properly, and tended correctly.

The idea (one of them) behind raised beds is that you don't walk on them and compact the soil.

I don't walk on my regular beds, either. I lay out paths with concrete stepping stones, or I carefully place individual stepping stones throughout the garden, and I walk on those. This has had a pretty major (and positive) impact on my soil.

Amen.. Preach it Leira ;-)

Not walking on your beds has so many advantages...
the least of which is weed control, if you have a non-compacted/heavily mulched garden bed,you will save yourself endless weeding/aggravating time.

{{gwi:28490}}

I would love to just lay my compost out on the garden like I did last year but I have no way to keep it damp and even though I put three layers of newspaper over the winrow it still dried out and really killed my harvest.So this upcomming spring it gets tilled in.That is if I'm going to be able to put it on my garden.

When someone lays compost on the soil, as a mulch, it will tend to dry out unless it is covered with some other material that would aid in holding moisture in the compost. This is one of the reasons why I have told people, often, to put compost on their planting beds and cover it with a mulch material.
There is no downside to simply layering compost on your soil while with tilling you tend to bring up lots of "weed" seeds, disturb your soils ecosystem, and aerate the soil so you should wait some time for that to settle before planting.