I am moving towards a no-till or low-till approach to gardening. Ultimately, I think that tilling is not the best for soil structure and life, not to mention the necessity of a gas-powered device. It feels silly to not use my car and bike around town, but still go to the gas station to fill up the gas can for the rototiller, mower and weed eater. I would eventually like to have a tidy, productive garden that requires of none of these gas-powered devices. I am investigating alternatives to mowing for the perimeter and grassy areas (low growing perennial green manures, scything, animals, mulching, etc...) but right now I am thinking more about how to prepare and maintain a large garden without the use of a tiller. 

I am collecting resources to find out more about using green manures to grow my own mulch and crowd out weeds. I am re-reading Eliot Coleman's books Four-Season Harvest and The New Organic Grower  and  while he does use a tiller to prepare garden beds and turn under green manure crops, he talks about no-till alternatives. In the "Tillage" chapter of The New Organic Grower, he mentions an article that outlines rotating vegetables and green manures for a sustainable on-site soil fertility system. One green manure is grown in the fall and winter and dies back just in time to plant spring crops. The plant residue acts as a mulch to the growing plants. On another plot, the green manure grows through the summer and dies back in time to plant fall crops. Considering that I just bought $40.00 worth of straw and could use lots more bales still, the idea of producing my own mulch on-site is very appealing. I googled the article and found a pdf of the article published by Ecos magazine. 

Additionally, I have been wanting to read the "One Straw Revolution," Masanobu Fukuoka's seminal work on no-till farming and gardening and I just joined the Fukuoka Farming Yahoo group. The group has the complete text of the book in it's "files" section as a pdf. 

I am delighted that I was able to find both of these resources within minutes of beginning my search- our I-Mac is another labor-saving device! Good thing we have more rain coming this week, I've got lots more reading to do.