Earthworms: Nature's Little Garden Helpers

The most important ingredient in your garden's soil is earthworms. These little workers will take the humus and compost and organic mulch that you put on the top of the soil and take it down to the roots of your plants. It is hard to believe such small creatures can do so much good for your home garden.

Earthworms would rather the compost they find not be too hot. If they find it to their liking, they will multiply quickly. They will also devour any soil and decaying matter they can fit into their mouths. In their digestive system, the soil gets mixed with calcium carbonate. The waste they excrete is full of nutrients that your garden plants will love to use.

Compost that is made specifically for earthworms to convert to soil nutrients is called "vermiculture." You can buy it as nurseries and garden shops. Or, you can make it yourself. You will need a box that is about 2 feet deep. The length does not really matter. Just choose one the length you think you can fill up. You will want to line this box with two large garbage bags. The best mixture to use for this is one third each of dry vegetation, green vegetables and kitchen waste, and soil. Since you are making this specifically for earthworms who have very small mouths, you might want to put the green vegetables and kitchen waste through a blender or food processor. The dry vegetation can be thin wood shavings and/or shredded newspaper. Roll the garbage bags down to just a few inches above the ingredients that have been mixed together well. Put this in a dark and well ventilated place. It needs to be kept moist, so add water every few days. It should be done in about 2 months. Your plants and the earthworms will love you for this mixture.

The end product of earthworms in your soil is called "castings." This compound has more nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium than any other animal manures. Every 24 hours, an earthworm will add it's own weight of these nutrients to your garden soil. Another way to feed them is the procedure called sheet composting. You can find out about how to do it in my article, here. If you want to know if there are earthworms in your garden, look for small piles of grayish heaps on top of your soil The worms might also leave tiny squiggles of grayish brown. The gray matter is the "casting" left by the earthworms.

If you do not have worms in your soil, they are easy to purchase. Just go to a place that sells fishing bait. You can get a lot of worms cheaply this way.

Earthworms are very important to your garden soil. And, if you feed them and keep them happy, they will help you keep your garden healthy. Hopefully, these tips will help you keep the earthworms around, so you will have less work in your home garden.

SOURCE

Thompson, Sylvia. "The Kitchen Garden". Bantam Books. 1995. New York, NY.