Mark's step-mom, Jayne, decided to convert her garden to no-till.  Previously, she had used her mulching mower to shred tree leaves and grass clippings from her lawn, then applied the organic matter to the vegetable garden as a generous coating of mulch.  However, she also tilled the soil every spring and fall.

In fall 2010, Jayne stopped tilling, but kept adding mulch.  Come spring, she simply pulled the mulch back from directly over top of her seeds (or seedlings), then scooped the mulch back into place around the plants once they were up and running.  Despite using the same amount of mulch as in previous years, Jayne reported that this year's garden had far fewer weeds than earlier gardens had.

In addition to deleting weeds, Jayne's heavy mulching campaign seems to have created a warmer microclimate that has allowed her garden plants to thrive deep into the winter.  She lives in zone 5, at the edge of a huge cornfield which lets the Midwestern wind whip through her garden --- this is a much colder spot than my zone 6, windless garden.  And yet, Jayne had unprotected arugula and other salad greens thriving on December 8.  (In contrast, the salad greens I didn't place under quick hoops are already two thirds dead.)

Under her row cover fabric, Jayne's broccoli and cabbage were thriving.  We looked under the covers when outside temperatures were in the low 20s, and there did seem to be some frost on the stems of the broccoli, but the heads looked fine.  Could the heavy organic matter be helping these broccoli hang on?

Are you inspired to change over to no-till next year?  A good place to start is with my Weedless Gardening lunchtime series.