Abi Anderson: Weekly Blog Post #6

 Week 6: Soil Health, Climate Change, and Best Conservation Farming Methods

    During the 6th week of the Workforce Development Internship Program, our Weekly Discussion theme was soil health and the best management practices for conservation farming. A practice we do at the urban farm that helps the health of the land’s soil is the use of cover crops. In our pumpkin field, my mentor decided to use a cover crop strategy in the field where those crops were to be planted. Not only does that strategy help the health of the soil in that field, but the rye will act as a nice bed for the pumpkins to lay on as they grow. I think this is such an interesting strategy that is not only a great conservation strategy for soil health, but it benefits the pumpkins as they grow! The plan for the pumpkins is to host a pick-your-own pumpkin patch in the Fall, and the cushion that the rye cover crop made for the pumpkins will prevent any dented or dirty pumpkins. 

Progress of the urban farm’s pumpkin and gourd plants. In between the pumpkin and gourd plants is rye, which is the chosen cover crop for this plot of the field.

    I’m working on understanding the purpose of cover crops, as many people in my life ask about what it does for your crops and what benefits it has. I’ve been researching not only how cover crops increase soil health by increasing soil organic matter, it also helps with soil erosion, nutrient runoff, reducing soil compactness, pest management, and soil fertility. I'm optimistic about all of the benefits of using a cover crop because it seems like can have many positive benefits to your soil and crops. It also seems to be an easy method to apply to smaller-scale gardens or farms, as my mentor has used this same cover crop strategy in his home urban farm. Below is a picture of his small farm at his home, and you can see that he used a similar cover crop to the one we use at the urban farm. Seeing this strategy being used outside of the work or research setting, and just being in someone's backyard, shows me that myself, or anyone, can implement cover cropping into any sized farming operation they have!

This is a picture of my mentor's home urban farm. He utilizes a similar cover crop method as the Anne Arundel Urban Farming Research Clinic at the office.

A picture of me in the middle of hoeing the cut flower field. It’s been hard work keeping the weeds at bay since we use limited herbicides in this area.