True, but as most catchy names go, this one is a bit more nuanced than it might seem. No-till gardening (and no-till farming) is not about *never* tilling the ground. It's about escaping from a regular yearly or biannual cycle of tilling, which tends to deplete nutrients, biological activity, and moisture from the soil. In general, the goal of "no-till" (and the real world results in some cases) is soil that gets *more* productive over time instead of less, while simultaneously decreasing or alleviating the need for fertilizers and other soil amendments.

But tilling it at the beginning to create ideal starting conditions for such a no-till approach is allowable and encouraged.

The key to it all is soil improvement - and determining how that is going to be done. I guess the moral is she tried the simple basic ways that didn’t involve much change but had to resort to imported gypsum and machinery.

The “improve the ground” is a very important part of subsistence and sustainable farming. Reducing the outside inputs as much as possible while still improving the soil is a laudable goal.