tilling/rotovating question

[womble]

I doubt if worm damage will be any greater than slicing in 2 with a spade. And don't they just grow whole agin, or is that an urban myth?

Urban myth.

Of course you get get more worm damage from a rotovator, for goodness sake, a spade goes in once per spitful, a rotovator goes in many more times in the same area.

[zazen999]

I am mostly a no-digger - but when you have thick clay you do need to break the clods down before popping onions in - so the hand tiller works wonders. It's getting easier each year though, esp when I mulch with coffee grounds and sawdust.

If there is loads of hard soil then mulch mulch mulch.....with weeds, then mulch with cardboard and plant through.

[Two_Sheds]

You sound like a chap who knows what he likes, so my comments here are for anyone else who is still considering their options

Our soil is heavy clay that soon gets compacted

It will be less compacted if you: mulch it; don't walk on it; don't rotavate it (rotavation goes down what, 12"? Below that a hard pan can form and never be loosened

The lower half ... is now covered in a mixture of hos muck, spent hops and shredded paper. In the spring i will rotovate it all in

The worms will be pulling a lot of that stuff down into the soil, aerating as they go. Their tunnels help with compacted soil

mechanical tilling and ploughing has been going one for 100s of years

and forest gardening has been going on for millions of years before that. Leaves fall to the ground, the worms pull them down, they rot into a mulch on the surface, birds & beasts add manure, more stuff grows. No mechanicals involved