Improving soil health is analogous to improving soil function and is measured with soil properties sensitive to management changes. Cover cropping is a management practice that is increasing in popularity but commonly done with annual cover crops. A perennial cover crop provides a longer time throughout the year for soil change to occur than annual cover crops. Perennial cover crops also adhere to several principles of soil health outlined by USDA-NRCS including keeping the ground covered, maintaining living roots, and increasing the plant diversity. This multi-pronged research was conducted to l) Understand the impacts of perennial and annual cover crops on soil physical and chemical properties over time, 2) Explore the utility of pedotransfer functions to predict hard-to-measure soil properties from soil properties that are relatively easier to obtain, and 3) Quantify nutrient cycling dynamics in perennial cover cropping system. The specific perennial cover crop focused on in this dissertation was white clover (Trifolium repens var. ‘Durana’) often referred to as a ‘living mulch’ (LM). There were several benefits from the LM system including greater mineralizable nitrogen rates than other cover cropping systems. Living mulch acted as a nutrient reservoir for potassium that could be luxury consumed when the cash crop didn’t need the nutrients and later released at critical growth stages. Total organic carbon at the 0-5 cm depth increased in the soil at an average rate of 0.12% per year, as averaged from all trials. At the pecan orchard site, infiltration rates between wheel tracks were 15 cm hr-1 faster than in wheel tracks, but the overall infiltration rate decreased in the wheel track area over time. Linear models developed for soils from two regions in Georgia to predict available water content, wilting point, and field capacity performed better than more geographically generalized pedotransfer function models. The LM system can provide many services to producers, but proper management of LM is needed along with sufficient time to realize these benefits.