I disagree. I believe no-till gardening, or lasagne style gardening, can be done anywhere in the world. The only draw back is you need lots of organic matter to get started. However you don't have to put organic matter every where in your garden. You can start a small borderless raised bed garden, then later expand your garden as you collect organic matter.
If you run out of rich, mature compost, then you can do legume/grain green manuring all year round, in various corners of your gardening areas. You can always use lots of free or cheap organic mulches, and just use aerated compost teas to simulate regular well aged compost/humus, in order to get an abundance of beneficial soil microbes to biostimulate your gardening bed system.
There are plenty of creative, economical ways to build up organic matter and microbes on a small or large farm in a no-till organic farming system.
My original soil here in Alabama was hard, red, acidic clay soil. Average soil pH = 5.0. After 3 years of using nothing but compost, mulches, green manures, and aerated teas, my soil super-rich, dark, healthy, and near perfect. My current average soil pH is 6.8.
I have started new lasagne garden bed mounds right on top of low cut lawn grass with no problems. The alternating layers of "greens" and "browns" mulches in the mound, suffocated most of the weeds. If any weeds did grow through the mulch, I apply more mulch, and green manure the weeds. No problem.
If your crop plant roots really need extra aeration, just poke holes in the soil around the roots with your spade fork. Otherwise, the microbes and the earthworms will do all the natural tilling you need.
Also I read once that no man-made tractor or tiller can match the power of some legume cover crops. For example, a thick, rich, inoculated alfalfa hay crop, if left alone over a 1-2 year period, can fixation enough organic nitrogen over an acre of soil, that is the equivalent of over 1-2 tons of 10-10-10 synthetic fertilizer! Not only is the top 6 inches of soil fertilized, but now you got fertilization and organic matter, even as far down as 24-36" down or deeper, with its legume roots working with rhizobacteria! Now if you green manure the alfalfa hay by just mowing, now you got over 3 feet deep of organic matter/compost underground, in aerated loose soil, for the next season's crop to use. No man-made tilling machine can do that.
_________________ The entire Kingdom of God can be totally explained as an Organic Garden (Mark 4:26)
William Cureton
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