Tinypahomestead
Chirping
We just started gardening at our new place. We had to till last fall since we had moved so much dirt for the greenhouse and trying to level the sloped yard. We raked a bazillion rocks out, then topped our beds with spent mushroom compost and then chopped leaves and let it sit all winter. Won't be tilling again, just topping every year with chicken/rabbit run compost. My garden is doing pretty well for its first year and the earthworms are fat and happy. I also sprayed my Jadam Microbial Solution on all the beds a rew weeks ago before a rain. The borage pics below were taken on June 3rd (before JMS) and June 14th (after JMS and rain).I'm not anti-artificial fertilizer, per se, but I do prefer to use my own organic chicken run compost. Like you, I have tried to live by the motto of feeding the soil and the soil will feed the plants. I think most artificial fertilizers feed the plants and do not help the soil at all.
Also, over the years, I have gone to less and less tilling as I have heard that it disrupts all the good living organisms in the soil that we want to encourage. Having said that, the first few years I attempted gardening here at the lake, I was tilling in as much organic material I could throw on the sandy soil garden. I think you have to have a good healthy base soil before the no till method makes sense.