Garden with Insight v1.0 Help: soil cover

Soil cover here means anything on the surface of the soil that impedes the reflectance of solar radiation, thus buffering the soil surface from drying out and becoming too hot when it is sunny. Living plants, standing dead plant matter, the mulch layer, and flat residue in the top soil layer all contribute to what we consider soil cover (and what is used to calculate the soil cover index, which affects soil temperature and evaporation).