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No Till report

Well, I've been using no-till for a year, and have some results to pass on.
	The first thing I noticed was that I needed to keep -much- better track of
my squares. To begin with I was using a thick layer of grass clippings and
putting down too much would causse the square to shed water. Soon I had
more compost and dried leaves to mix in so that became less of a problem. 	
	Next, as some may remember, I got a sudden increase of Pill Bugs. They ate
a good portion of last summers crop, anything that touched the ground.
Since then they have decreased, but they still eat any strawberries that I
don't put fresh dry leaves under.
	But this winter I began to get results from the improved soil structure.
During the rains, I didn't get as much soggy washout, and during the dry
times (the worse is yet to come, so I may be premature here) I didn't have
to water twice a day like I used to.
	What I have is 4 2x4 beds and 2 3x6 beds built up one foot above ground. I
used to have a soaker hose drip watering system, but I ended up taking that
out recently since I wasn't using it anymore. Watering once a week or so is
all I needed this spring, with spot watering of seedlings.
	I cut into Two of the beds lately, in the process of moving them closer
together, and was amazed at the quality of soil. Both beds were totally
permeated with earthworms and the upper levels were dark, spongey, almost
crystaline in it's structure, with strings of fungus, worm passages, and
fine roots from the plants I was transplanting as I moved them.
	Weeds are almost non-existent, meaning that I get some tree sprouts from
the camphor leaves, but that's all.
	Oops, got to go.

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