first i hope everybody is doing fine and your gardens are produtive!any hoo is it possible to over till?i like to till alot but i notice that it seams like water has a tough time soaking in,i can water for an hour but looks like only a inch soaks in,my soil is getting better but still lots of sand(dang michigan dirt!)so i'm tinking the tiling is makeing the soil to fine in texture any thoughts?

It is definitely possible to overtill! Personally I till "new ground" once the first year to break it up and MAYBE once the second year to get a lot of organic material mixed in. After that it is strictly no-till. Others here prefer to go with no-till the whole way, just spread material on the area that will become your garden and let nature (the earthworms) do the tilling for you.

The worms, by the way, suffer from overtilling. Every time you till you destroy the highway system they have built up under the ground. All that good, free, effective drainage gone! Also, you develop a "hardpan" down under the area you tilled. While the tines are making the soil on the surface fluffy, they are also compacting everything under the fluffy zone. Repeated tilling makes it worse. Makes it hard for your deep-rooted plants to grow, as well as keeps earthworms from coming back.

Walleye is right. My garden has never seen a tiller in the 12 years I've been here. If I think the ground needs "turned over" I just get out my favorite tool, the shovel.

Adding compost materials year after year will loosen up that hard soil.

I'm also a big time, no-till gardener!

Unless you have a physical handicap or have over an acre in garden beds, tilling is really unnecessary. Excessive tilling is harsh on earthworms and beneficial mycorhizza fungi growth in the soil.

I use lots of organic matter and various aerobic compost tea recipes, all year round to aerate and loosen my soil via aerobic microbes and earthworms.

thank you for the help