Better practice is to remove all dead plant material and not till. When you till, you're destroying and possibly even killing a lot of the microbes and their tunnels made through the soil.
Any time you till, too, you're bringing up more weed seeds and exposing them to air where they can sprout.
One time in twenty years, I ran a rototiller through the garden in NJ to remove some tree roots that had migrated in. Had to use the plow to remove the fescue from the new garden spot I created along the creek down below here. Had an awful time with weeds that first year. Last year, having sold my Gravely and its plow and bought my JD, I recreated the raised rows with my disc hiller rig. Had some more weeds but not as much as the first year after using the Gravely.
I always apply mulch to the rows either before planting (and scrape away mulch to put in new seed) or after the plants are up a couple of inches. The mulch feeds the microbes in the soil. I don't use any fertilizer. Feed the microbes, and they feed the soil. The mulch keeps down the weeds, too, and help to retain moisture.
For more on this, get the book, Teaming with Microbes.
Ralph
