Can You Till Raised Garden Beds?

Before Installation

• Shallower raised beds, such as those less than a foot in height, are often tilled before installation to incorporate amendments such as compost into otherwise depleted soils. Iowa State University Extension recommends tilling amendments and extra topsoil into the raised bed area a few inches at a time using a rototiller or spade until the raised bed is at sufficient height.

Manually

• After the raised bed is installed, manual tilling may be the best option. Spades and garden forks are commonly used. There are even tillers with prongs that dig into the soil, and then worked into the ground using a twisting motion. For very tall raised beds meant to be managed at waist height, hand spades or hand garden forks are often more convenient.

Rototilling

• Trying to use a rototiller in a raised bed may cause compaction instead of loosening the soil. However, if the raised bed already has compacted soil, and if the raised bed is wide enough to accommodate the rototiller, with several inches on each side to prevent harming the walls of the raised garden, rototillers are an option. In general, beds that are taller than a foot or are too narrow to safely accommodate a rototiller should be hand-tilled instead.

Considerations

• Depending on the height of the raised bed and the depth of the roots of the plants going into the raised bed, initial tilling may not be necessary at all. And if you're filling the bed with fertile soil, or managing it so that it doesn't become depleted by adding copious compost, you won't need to till afterwards. Tilling kills or displaces valuable soil microbes and insects such as earthworms, which are, in effect, doing your tilling for you.