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Just realized my raised beds stopped drying out after I stopped tilling them
Three summers back I was watering my two 4x8 beds in the backyard every single morning, sometimes twice when it hit 95 here in Wichita. Then I got lazy and quit turning the soil every spring, just kept topping it with compost and letting the worms do their thing. By last August I stuck a finger down and the dirt held moisture a good 3 inches below the surface, where before it went dust at 1 inch. Same beds, same Kansas heat, same watering can, the only change was leaving the soil structure alone. Two seasons of no tilling and my water bill dropped about $18 a month. Anyone else notice their beds hold water better once they quit messing with the dirt?
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haydenb361mo ago
Did you notice it right away or did it take a full season to show up? I had almost the same thing happen in my beds here in KC. I quit digging mine up about four years ago and just keep piling on leaves and grass clippings. The first year nothing seemed different, but by the second summer the soil was dark and crumbly and I could skip a day of watering even in July. My tomatoes did way better too, less cracking and blossom end rot since the ground stayed even instead of going wet to bone dry. Sounds like you found the same thing, the less you mess with it the more it holds onto what falls from the sky.
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