gumbo2176 wrote:
Then there are those that don't ever use a tiller on their soil and prefer to dig by hand with a broad fork. I think a lot of that depends on the physical condition of the person needing to do the digging and the condition of the soil. My area before making a garden was nothing but heavy clay and it was a real chore with the tiller to get it broken up after many days of use and organic matter added.
I have a number of physical...challenges (won't go into them right now, but believe me, they cramp my style Big Time). I
cannot turn the ground with a D-shaped shovel or a square shovel. It's all I can do to turn my BioStack compost with a square shovel, and the compost "pile" is 3'x3'x3' max; usually a little smaller.
But I
can break up the earth very well with a broadfork or even a pitchfork. Put the tines into the earth maybe an inch or two, put my foot onto the back of the tines, lean with my body weight until the tines are well into the earth, and wiggle the fork back and forth to create channels for water and nutrients to penetrate the soil. Done!

In patches of tight California adobe clay, stand on the fork and let my body weight carry it into the ground as far as it will go.
That, I can do and have done in our admittedly small patch of ground. I did it the first two years we lived in this house, before I ever thought of raised beds. I worked our "largest" patch, approx. 8' x 12', in just an hour and a half. DH and I had spread our compost over the soil, and then I "forked" it in. We watered, then waited a day or so before planting.
Just a regular ol' pitchfork.
Cynthia H.
Sunset Zone 17, USDA Zone 9