Tilling Garden Beds

There is some debate on whether you should till your garden beds. It all comes down to personal preference. That said, tilling garden beds have many advantages that you may find extremely helpful throughout the growing season. Here are some reasons why you should consider tilling your garden bed with a tool — and how a Power Planter auger will make the job easier.

Advantages of Tilling Garden Beds

Garden tilling has several key benefits that can help get your plants off to an early start and keep them healthier throughout the growing season:

Tilling early helps prevent weeds because it chops the weeds that have already started to grow in spring, which prevents them from taking over the garden as the season continues. Additionally, tilling gardens in fall disturbs any perennial weeds that have taken root, which means they won’t return in spring.
Tilling a new garden is helpful because it can loosen the soil, which results in more air mixed into the soil. This helps elements such as leaves and other organic matter decompose into the soil, which gives more nutrients for your plants. Also, looser soil provides better root-to-earth contact — helping plants grow more quickly.
Fall tilling is a great time to add compost, manure and other soil amendments to your garden beds. Simply top-coating untilled soil with these supplements doesn’t provide quite as much nitrogen and carbon as plants will receive when soil amendments are mixed into the earth.
In spring, one of the biggest challenges gardeners face is soil that warms slowly. By tilling, you’ll be mixing in more air and revealing a fresh, darker layer of earth. Both of these elements help the soil warm sooner, which gets your plants growing more quickly.
Tilling is a good way to prevent pests because it disrupts the lifecycle of larvae that have lain dormant in the soil during winter.

How to Till With an Auger

Tilling a garden with a tiller — or worse, doing it by hand with a shovel — can be hard work, especially for older people or those with arthritis and back problems. Augers make the job easier, particularly when tilling a new garden or a large space, and there are several ways that you can use an auger to get this job done. If you’re tilling raised beds or smaller beds around the house, you can use the auger to till the entirety of the garden. Just drill throughout the bed, making sure that you’re careful to avoid any weed barrier that might be beneath a raised bed. Soon, you’ll have thoroughly mixed the soil and prepared it for planting. Using a large auger, mark the places where you’d like to dig holes and use the auger to drill in those selected spots. This minimizes the labor involved in pushing a heavy gas-powered tiller, but you’ll still have the advantage of freshly turned soil wherever you’d like to plant annuals and vegetables.

Why Choose Power Planter Augers?

For tilling a garden bed, a tool of the highest quality is a smart investment. Few things are worse than an auger that breaks or bends halfway through the tilling process. Power Planter augers give you peace of mind since they’re backed by an unconditional guarantee — all parts, materials and even the craftsmanship are covered against breakage. What’s more, as a family-owned business built on three generations of hard work and exacting standards, our augers are made on our farm in Central Illinois. Check out Power Planter’s selection of augers today. Whether you’re tilling raised beds, new vegetable gardens or flowerbeds around your home, we’ll have an auger to suit your needs.