Worms are nature’s most perfect recycling bin. The little eating machines can devour half their weight in organic waste every day, cleaning up the leavings of plants and animals. As they munch and wiggle they create a tiny subway system below the ground making the earth friable and aerated. What a boon to organic gardens! The end product of all this goodie gobbling contains rich nutrients called worm castings or black gold. Think of it as steroids for your garden. That little beast is pumping your garden up!
You can restore worms to your garden by providing worm comforts. Begin by burying vegetation from your yard and garden just under the soil. Leaves, dead plants, grass clippings, kitchen scraps such as carrot or potato peels, crushed egg shells, strawberry hulls, leftover fruits and vegetables that stayed in the ‘fridge too long entice worms to come for a nibble. Cover the garbage with a light layer of soil and then water. You may even want to buy worm castings from a garden shop or greenhouse to initially build up the soil.
Red worms, considered the best worm to use for composting and adding black gold to the garden are surface worms that seldom delve down more than eighteen inches below ground level. Their basic needs are simple: food, moisture, oxygen, and a dark place to call home. Every week worms create about three cocoons, each holds between three to ten baby worms quickly increasing their population. It’s important to harvest the worms every three months, separating them from their castings. This would be a good time to introduce more worms to your garden as well as sprinkle the black gold over the soil.
Building a home for the producers of black gold ensures that you’ll have plenty of worms and loads of the rich black humus that benefits the garden. Try to make a worm bin out of wood, if at all possible. However, almost anything can be used. A wooden crate or box works well, but a plastic container works, too. The container needs to be at the very least, twelve inches deep with a preference for eighteen and two to three square feet of space should do the trick. This area can comfortably house one pound of worms adding up to between 800 and 1200 of the lowly creatures. A lid that fits tight and holes drilled into the bottom of the container completes the home for your adopted worms. continue reading…
