I feel sorry for you guys that have clay. It takes a ton of work and woodchips to change clay into a good garden tilth. And time, too. But once you have done that, you've got something good. I've been lucky to only have sandy loam, twice. My first home was built on an old potato farm, and my current home on cut-and-fill lowland, so I've been blessed.
As I understand no-till farming, it does not apply favorably to gardening on a small scale, EXCEPT, as I do something similar, as above, with my concrete walkways, which shed water into the beds, too. The typical garden in a subdivision or city is protected from eroding winds by buildings and shrubs and trees, etc. Likewise, whatever washes away from heavy rain can't get too far.
My problem with no-till as the Link explains it is twofold: while farmland IS subject loose topsoil blowing away, gardens don't have winds similar in natural to vast, open plowed fields. A rototiller is not comparable to a tractor in weight or compacting, either. If a "garden" is comparable to a farm, then I'm excluding that from my commentary, here. Please do not call me out because your 3 acre "garden" is on the lee side of the Rockies at 10° tilt and you get Chinook winds. Big rains on loose soil on open land does move downhill. But that's not applicable to a city-size garden either because they are usually cut-outs within a lawn, or at least a yard. Whatever washes away from heavy rain can't get too far. I can understand that the trade-off between land blowing and washing away verses allowing more weeds to grow is a toss-up, and I don't envy the decision maker because I consider that to be a lose-lose situation. Preventing weeds from getting to seed stage is paramount in my whole yard. Weed seeds blow in or are brought by my feathered friends and my job is to spot weeds before they do their duty. Sometimes I even sneak into my neighbors' yards to pull an offender. A good defense requires less offense.
Now for the meat: worms love loose soil, the looser, the better. If the soil is turned to the depth of a digging fork and then covered with a heavy mulch year-around it will be a worm farm and will NOT compact much at all for a year or more. Of equal importance, microbes also thrive in such conditions and turning with a fork absolutely, positively, with out reservation, damages NOTHING, especially microbe colonies. The combination of aerating with a fork or even with a rototiller every year and covering with a heavy mulch (I use leaves and grass clipping) is the very best you can do for your soil. Period.
