Before I move here to Omaha to take the job as the Urban Ag Program Coordinator, I was the county agriculture agent for county in West Virginia that is home to the state capital.  One of the things that I did for my work was to write the weekly (Sunday) garden column for the biggest newspaper in the state.  After I left, I was replaced with a rotating team of local gardeners, some of whom give great advice and others…not so much.

There was one recent article about how raised bed gardens were horrible and that everyone should just till up a big garden space in their yard.  With what we know about tilling, and no-till systems this is some of the worst advice you can give a gardener.  I responded in my recent blog post at The Garden Professors about the benefits of raised beds, the issues caused by soil disturbance (erosion, nutrient loss, organic matter loss, microbial loss, etc), and the benefits of no-till.  You can check out the post below.

http://gardenprofessors.com/raisedbedrebuttal/  

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The Garden Professors Facebook Page

The Garden Professors Discussion Group