frilly lilly...
What he/she is describing is a Ruth Stout method. She was well-known for her deep mulch gardening using straw, hay, leaves, etc, and giving up any type of tilling or breaking the ground. You could probably Google "no work garden" and find some of her books on the topic.
I had a "no work" garden some years back and it worked great up to a point -- when my neighbor and his bobcat loaded a bunch of mulch into it that was full of Bermuda grass. Yikes, even deep mulching won't get rid of Bermuda grass so that was the end of that area/era, dagnabbit.
But yet, planting spud under heavy mulch works extremely well. And if you decide to work your ground after the season it really adds to the soil tilth by tilling it in OR just leave it there and let the worms and nature work it in (my preference.)
Shoe (watching inches and inches of snow coming down in NC...and potential power outages. Yikes! But it sure is pretty!)
