Good soil habits aren't just for farms

It's easy to think that good soil habits like cover crops and maintaining a healthy top soil apply only to farms and large-scale gardens.

After all, does it really matter if your home's soil is healthy if you won't be feeding the community with its harvest?

"The thing that homeowners have to worry about is losing all of the nutrition in the soil. If you leave the land bare, the rain will just wash the nutrients away," said Eileen East, a gardening enthusiast and Master Gardener with the Penn State Cooperative Extension.

This is a twofold problem. First, the nutrients (and any chemicals used to treat the ground or grass) that are washed away end up in local streams and rivers. This can affect local wildlife and our own water supply, making good soil habits an important point for conservationists.

Perhaps more importantly for homeowners worried about aesthetics, good soil practices make it easier to maintain a beautiful yard or garden. Leaving the ground bare for even one season means less nutrients in the soil for plants or grass.

Rainwater is also captured more effectively on well-tended soil. Instead of pounding bare earth and quickly running off, the water is able to saturate the ground and soak into the soil. This means less work and manual watering for homeowners.

"The scientific community is saying that more homeowners should be planting cover crops," said East.

Even if you're not interested in planting cover crops such as rye, winter wheat or oats, all of which are plowed under to increase organic matter in vegetable plots, take a laid-back approach to avoid bare soil. Vow now to clean your fall vegetable or flower bed sparingly, leaving behind dead plants and foliage that will protect precious nutrients over the fall and winter and return some organic matter to the soil.