No-till, no problem
How small-scale growers are using an ancient farming method
We grew up in the suburbs, and we are not by nature farmers,” Willett-Stone Farm marketing director Ashley Stone says, laughing. But Stone comes from a family of entrepreneurs and business owners, and two years ago Stone’s family, including parents Bob and Julie Willett, began a new venture—no-till farming.
No-till is an agricultural method that minimizes soil disruption. Tillage methods like plowing turn the soil over, clearing it for planting, but they also expose the soil to erosion. No-till, on the other hand, buries seeds without turning the soil over. While both methods are ancient, the plow has dominated agriculture for thousands of years. But since the 1960s, among mounting concerns around soil erosion and productivity, no-till has become more common—even for small-scale farms and home gardens.
When Stone’s parents began farming, their only experience was home gardening. They bought land in Fisherville, served by Salt River Electric, and Bob Willett began attending conferences and taking courses in soil and regenerative farming.
“These are not new [practices],” Bob Willett says. “They’re being assigned with new titles—regenerative, organic, things like that. But pre-industrial-eras, this was the way people fed their families.”
Today, the Willett-Stone family owns two greenhouses and farms 3 acres, growing seasonal vegetables—lettuce, greens, peppers, tomatoes, watermelons and more. They do it all by implementing no-till gardening practices, keeping the microbiomes intact in the topsoil, rather than tilling it. Other components of Willett-Stone Farm’s regenerative farming efforts are using cover crops, crop rotation and organic compost to feed the soil, while avoiding pesticides.
Combining all that, the family sees reduced carbon emissions, increased water conservation and nutrient-dense produce yields that Stone believes are healthier than those found in grocery stores. With five children of her own, that’s important to Stone. “It’s really special to be able to grow the food, to teach the children about where our food comes from, and to get them involved in the process,” she adds.
How does no-till work?
Kelly Jackson, Christian County horticulture extension agent, assisted local gardener Frank Amaro in implementing no-till practices three years ago. At that time, he demonstrated a couple of different no-till gardening options. The first involved covering the entire garden bed with landscape fabric and then burning holes in the fabric with a special tool to allow for seed placement and plant growth.
The second option alternated landscape fabric with 5-inch bands of exposed soil—that had already been tilled once—repeating until there were about six rows across the garden bed. Jackson preferred this method over the first, as it was less labor intensive and didn’t require specialized equipment. And this is the method Amaro implemented in his garden, which has proven successful.
With either of those methods, Jackson says home gardeners using landscape fabric as part of their no-till practice can go many years without disturbing the soil again, which builds up the soil biodiversity. “In other words, beneficial organisms in the soil can help your plants and your gardens do better,” Jackson adds.
Matt Futrell, a Christian County extension agent specializing in agriculture and natural resources, describes soil as a living, breathing ecology. “If we’re tilling, we’re disturbing that soil health,” Futrell explains. “When we’re no-tilling, we’re conserving organic matter. We’re conserving water, and it just makes for a healthier biome, really.”
Julie Willett and grandson Ryder Stone enjoy a day on the farm. Photos: Tim Webb
Results speak for themselves
Amaro, a Pennyrile Electric consumer-member, hailed from Chicago before calling Kentucky home. Three years ago, he applied for a gardening grant through his local Christian County extension office. To his surprise, he was selected as a grant recipient, and he’s been gardening ever since.
Amaro has two gardens—both 70 feet by 100 feet. His west garden is tilled, while his east garden is a no-till space. And over the years, he has noticed a stark difference between the two.
With no-till, Amaro says, “One of the biggest things, and I think the most important thing, is no erosion to our soil.” Another benefit is that piling compost and wood chips around the plants and placing fabric between the rows discourages weed growth. And yearly soil tests continue to show superior soil health in his no-till garden.
Overall, Amaro’s time, effort and costs spent on his no-till garden are all less than those spent on his tilled garden. Amaro is so impressed with no-till gardening that he’s used his tiller for the last time. “2025 is going to be no-till all the way around,” he says.
Amaro has grown everything from beans and cucumbers to unique plants like cucuzza, a Sicilian vegetable in the zucchini family, and zucca di Napoli, an Italian blend of pumpkin, zucchini and butternut squash. “You name it, I’ve grown it,” he says. This year, Amaro plans to focus even more on peppers, while continuing to implement gardening methods that promote soil health.
“People have to remember it all starts with the soil,” says Amaro. “So if you’ve got good soil, you’ll have great plants.”
“Human-scale” farming
In Bowling Green, Jackson Rolett and his wife, Jordan, have practiced no-till gardening for eight years. Today, Jackson is a lead farmer at Apostles Garden, a half-acre market garden in Warren County that uses intensive, no-till practices.
“We became interested in no-till gardening because we were working to ‘human-scale’ our market garden—or rely mostly on our bodies and hand tools to do the work—and remove the need for tractors and other gas-powered implements,” Jackson Rolett explains.
The Roletts lease land from Holy Apostles Orthodox Church, where the couple grows 20-plus varieties of fruits and vegetables year-round for direct market and donation—and it’s all done using no-till practices.
“Once a plot is established, which does require some tillage,” says Rolett, “we rely mostly on human power and a small amount of electric-powered equipment.”
No-till gardening at a small scale removes the need for most mechanization, and it also has reduced the Roletts’ labor costs. And if done well, Rolett says, no-till reduces the annual weed seed bank and increases the carbon stored in the soil, which leads to better water-holding capacity and improved soil biology for healthier, more resilient plants.
He believes home gardeners who are considering implementing no-till gardening methods in their own space often already have the needed tools and resources, like mulch materials.
“They just need to reimagine how to use them,” he says. “Tarping, broadforking, sowing cover crops, mulching with leaves, composting—all of these can be done very easily and affordably. We just need to follow a few simple principles and be open to a bit of experimentation.”
No-Till Tips to Implement in Your Own Garden
Jackson Rolett, Apostles Garden lead farmer, recommends gathering no-till knowledge from books, like The Living Soil Handbook by Jesse Frost and The Organic No-Till Vegetable Farm by Daniel Mays. He also suggests learning cost-effective ways of growing from experienced farmers to save money in the long run.
Ashley Stone, Willett Stone Farm marketing director, advises those new to gardening to start small. And she stresses the importance of organic, non-GMO seeds. Stone also suggests using readily available resources, like books, YouTube, and a Netflix documentary, Kiss the Ground, that spotlights the importance of regenerative agriculture.
Home gardener Frank Amaro keeps a close check on his garden’s soil health with yearly testing through the University of Kentucky. He also suggests reaching out to local extension agents for help and attending master gardener classes when available.
Christian County horticulture extension agent Kelly Jackson says raised beds are one of the most basic no-till methods home gardeners can easily implement in their own backyards.
Martin-Till revolutionizes commercial no-till farming
In the mid-1980s, Todd County resident Howard Martin began working on a mechanical row cleaner that would transform commercial no-till farming. He patented his revolutionary no-till row cleaner in 1988 and sold his invention to John Deere for a small upfront price, plus a dollar per row royalty. But with a poor farming economy at the time, that deal fell through. A few years later, John Deere licensed three companies to market the row cleaner, one being Martin’s—and Martin-Till was born.
What set Martin’s no-till row cleaner apart?
“What he did was make a pair of toothed wheels that intersect at an angle, and they just raked the old crop residue out of the way, kind of like a garden rake would,” explains Martin’s son, Steve. The wheels were designed so that they didn’t disturb the soil, opening the door for widespread no-till machinery becoming available to commercial farmers.
In 1991, Martin and his family opened Martin-Till in Elkton, manufacturing and shipping his no-till row cleaner invention from his farm shop. Today, though Howard Martin has passed, his family still runs the business that Martin started more than 30 years ago. Martin-Till products are shipped all over the world from their state-of-the-art facility, powered by Pennyrile Electric and located in Elkton, a few miles from Howard’s original farm shop.
“We try to lead the industry in innovative products to help commercial farmers equip their planters to make no-till or reduced tillage work better,” says Steve. In October 2024, Howard Martin was recognized posthumously for his innovative agricultural achievements and inducted into the international Farm Equipment Manufacturers Association in Dallas, Texas.
No-Till Growers YouTube channel
Pioneers of No-Tillage Spotlights Howard Martin, founder of Martin-Till
