INDIANAPOLIS – Urban and small-scale farmers should consider such practices as cover crops, crop rotation and no-till to improve their soil’s health, the director of the Urban Soil Health Program said recently.

Use of the practices can help control erosion, pests and soil moisture, Elli Blaine said. She participated in a May 3 webinar sponsored by Purdue University’s Women in Agriculture team. The Urban Soil Health Program was created earlier this year as a partnership between the Indiana Association of Soil and Water Conservation Districts and the USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service.

The benefits of soil health include increased plant productivity, reduced weed and pest pressure and increased water filtration, Blaine explained. Soil health is defined as the continued capacity of soil to function as a vital living ecosystem that sustains plants, animals and humans, she said.

“That’s a pretty broad definition,” Blaine noted. “But it touches upon what those soils are trying to achieve, sustaining all of us, all life. I really love the fact that we have a living ecosystem at that foundation. Soil health is not an end goal. It is, I think, a journey. It’s not necessarily where you end up but how we get there together that can help improve that functioning of our soils over time.”

As a first step toward managing for improved soil health, she recommended a soil test. “Know what your baseline is,” Blaine said. “It can tell you what your nutrient levels are. Most importantly, for me, what your pH is, whether that needs any adjustment and what your organic matter level is.”

Successful nutrient management “comes back to soil biology and how much activity and soil life we have in our soils,” she pointed out. “So, if we don’t have those biological communities of micro-organisms we are unlikely to be able to get the most out of our soils and into our crops.”

The four principles of soil health are minimizing disturbance and maximizing soil cover, biodiversity and continuous living roots, Blaine said. To achieve those goals, she suggested the use of mulching and nutrient and pest management techniques in addition to cover crops, crop rotation and no- or low-till farming.

Cover crops, for example, increase the soil’s organic matter, prevent soil erosion and reduce tillage and compaction. Crop rotation increases nutrient cycling, holds soil moisture and manages weeds, insects and diseases. Mulching reduces erosion from wind and rain, moderates soil temperatures and reduces dust.

When we think of erosion, Blaine said, “We often don’t think about downward erosion. We mostly think about soils washing off our fields. But when we are disturbing those soils often, we can lose some of the space for air and water amongst those soil particles and actually increase downward erosion, whereby those soils are compacting over time.”

Cover crops are used by many larger-scale farmers but also work well for smaller operations, whether a few acres or a raised-bed garden, she said. Blaine’s “go to” cover crop species for home or small-scale gardens are oats, cereal rye, hairy vetch and crimson clover.

Crop rotation means to grow a diverse number of crops in a planned sequence to increase soil organic matter and biodiversity in the soil, she said. “Most growers, you’re probably already doing this. Most growers are doing this intuitively and naturally just based on the small-scale nature of our production. We have to grow a large number of crops in a small space.”

Examples of urban and small-scale agriculture are market farms or gardens, community, church or school farms, demonstration or research farms, restaurant or hospital gardens and backyard or home gardens.