This week the Good Growing team chats with Illinois Extension educator Duane Friend about cover crops and soil organic matter. They discuss a recent article about how the Midwest is quickly losing carbon-rich topsoil and if that rings true for Illinois. Duane gives possible remedies to help conserve soil and how cover crops can play a role and how cover crops can be used in the home garden. Plus your questions: There is a funky smell in the air near the farm fields. Is this rotting cover crops? What to do when your brand new home is left with lousy soil. Can cover crops be planted in the spring before planting tomatoes? Can cover crops become weeds? Is there a way to kill cover crops without using herbicides? I started using cover crops, but now I have voles in my garden. What can I do!? Tilling my garden for years has caused the soil to settle. Will using cover crops stop the settling? Check out Duane's upcoming webinar on Farm Pond Management https://extension.illinois.edu/events/2021-03-30-rural-pond-management-webinar Duane also has a new blog All About Weather https://extension.illinois.edu/blogs/all-about-weather Want to watch the podcast? You can on YouTube https://youtu.be/3b-03cLAfr4