How did a grandmother's passion for gardening inspire her grandson's career in taking care of the soil? In this episode, Cory Guilliams, district conservationist with Virginia USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS), recalls the influence and lessons learned from his grandmother about soil health and winter cover crops as he helped her as a youth in picking and weeding beans and potatoes. Cory shares the history and definition of no-till farming in Virginia and the Mid-Atlantic Region and how important the practice is for aggregating soil particles and reducing erosion. Tillage can be extremely destructive so minimizing soil disturbance is critical. We can all be 4 The Soil and do our part to build health from the soil up.

To learn more about soil health and possible careers in natural resources conservation and environmental sciences, please visit the Virginia USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service website at https://www.nrcs.usda.gov/wps/portal/nrcs/site/va/home/.

For more information about cover crops, no-till practices, and other ways to build soil health or share your own story of how you became interested in taking care of the soil, please visit the Virginia Soil Health Coalition website at https://www.virginiasoilhealth.org/resources-1.

4 the Soil: A Conversation is made possible with funding support from the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation and The Agua Fund. Other partners include the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service; Virginia Cooperative Extension; Virginia State University; Virginia Department of Conservation and Recreation; and partners of the Virginia Soil Health Coalition.

Disclaimer: Views expressed on this podcast are those of each individual guest.

To download a copy of this, or any other show, visit the website 4thesoil.org. Music used during today’s program is courtesy of the Flip Charts. All rights reserved. 4 the Soil: A Conversation is produced by On the Farm Radio in collaboration with Virginia Tech. The host and co-hosts are Jeff Ishee, Mary Sketch Bryant, and Eric Bendfeldt.