Earthworms - Nature's Mini Rototillers.

Have you ever been faced with soil that appears hopelessly dead ?

Maybe you've just moved into a new subdivision where the soil is extremely dense and compacted , left over form heavy equipment and foot traffic during the house construction.

Or perhaps you live in an area that's arid desert and your soil is dry , compacted sand.

You want to put in a nice flower bed along the front side of the house or put in a big vegetable garden out back. How can you begin the process of building great, fertile soil in a seemingly lifeless environment ?

The answer...Enter the lowly earthworm. Yes , the answer to reviving poor soil is to introduce it to a thriving community of slippery , slimy , hard-working , earthworms .




Why Earthworms ?

Earthworms are a valuable asset to your soil. How so ?

Earthworms mix the soil as they eat their way through, and their tunnels loosen compacted clay or silt , allowing water to channel deeper into your soil.

If there is a healthy population of earthworms present in your garden , you might expect an increase of up to 75 percent in aeration as the earthworms bore their way through your soil.

This in turn causes tiny organisms around your plant roots to thrive.

But the benefits of earthworms are not due to just the efficient way they aerate our soils.

They also carry along with them little composters that recycle the organic material and soil they devour. Inside the worm's crop and stomachs, the organic material is broken down into nutrients , and the soil is ground down into extremely fine particles . This "soil soup " or castings in the worm's gut is mixed with beneficial nutrients from within the worm before it is excreted right next to the plant roots.

When ordinarily unavailable nutrients pass through an earthworm , the nutrients come out in forms that are readily available for the plant's uptake .

Earthworm Castings : Pure Gold For your Garden

According to USDA tests , castings compared to the soil where they were made , have about five times the available nitrogen , seven times the phosphorous , eleven times the potassium , and one and a half times the calcium .

Earthworms can produce up to 700 pounds of these valuable castings per acre ! Can you imagine how much 700 pounds of fertilizer would cost you ?

High populations of earthworms - half a million worms per acre - can create about 250 miles of tunnels every week ! The benefit of all this aeration is that the soil more readily allows heavy rains to drain into the soil , and therefore keeps the soil from getting waterlogged.

With all the benefits that the earthworm can bring us in maintaining healthy and nutritious soil , how can we encourage these amazing creatures to stay around in our gardens and multiply ?

Making Earthworms Welcome

How can you build a healthy earthworm population in your soil and keep them multiplying year after year ?

Earthworms need lots of organic material to thrive - compost, rotted manure , decaying plants . They are feeding constantly, and once the earthworm population has increased in your soil , you'll continually need to keep them fed.

Cow manure, grass clippings , and green clover leaves - all high nitrogen materials- are a feast for worms.

Worms also love kitchen waste such as old fruits and vegetables. They especially love lettuce and cabbage.

Believe it or not , earthworms are creatures of habit. If they find food in a certain place , they'll keep returning to it for more.

Don't till your kitchen scraps into the ground however. The worms will dig horizontally to get to the food. However if you leave the food scraps on top of the soil , the earthworms will dig it up , leaving up-ward facing tunnels that will bring more rain and air into the soil than the horizontal tunnels.

Soil Earthworms Thrive In.

Acid soil, with a PH of 5.4 or less , will kill earthworms. Avoid acid mulches like large quantities of oak leaves or pine needles.

A good way to increase PH in an acid soil is to add lime . Always test the soil yearly to ensure you are reaching a more neutral PH level .

Sandy soils also support fewer worm populations, so be sure to add ample compost to create a more moist and favorable environment for earthworms to thrive in. This process will take a while .

Find out how you can begin the process of creating loads of worm castings for you garden  here .