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Last summer I bought a house on a third of an acre, and since have been told it was the original site for one of the oldest known farms in the region.
I've just started planting and growing things here...weeds and wild plants are lush as anything, the soil is dark and friable and there are about 1,000 earthworms per square inch.
I know earthworms are good for soil, but does the presence of them indicate good soil, or is that an old wive's tale?
As you can see from the answers it means good soil and getting better, so it isn't an old wives' tale. They prefer places where there is organic matter and turn that organic matter into the nutrients plants take up and need to be healthy. They are important in the physical aeration of the soil, as well as the release of nutrients. Generally speaking, the more worms the better the soil is for gardens.
Quote:
Originally Posted by no kudzu
I was once teaching a perennial class at The Atlanta Botanical Gardens. I knew it had a few beginners but was shocked when a woman raised her hand and asked "How can I get those awful worms out of my soil?"
The entire room went silent and I managed to regain my composure and tell her most of us would be envious of her wormy soil. She was very surprised. I congratulated her on trying to learn as much as she could about gardening and she would soon learn to love her worms.
That must have been an interesting class and a great answer! I've had similar but not quite as public questions about the "icky stuff" of gardening when people want to know how to do gardening. I'll have to keep that in mind the next time.
I was just doing some wordplay. Sick is slang for really really good, but also has the standard definition, and the word love has multiple meanings as well. Hint - in one definition I was not going for the agape version... and... some people eat worms and seem to love them.
So, to translate my entire post:
It is a really good thing that you have abundant worms. That means your soil is rich and has not been doused with pesticides. Although some very strange people get sexual kicks out of earthworms, did you know that they can also be eaten? (Can you tell I read up once on how to raise red wigglers for fun and profit? )
So, to translate my entire post:
It is a really good thing that you have abundant worms. That means your soil is rich and has not been doused with pesticides. Although some very strange people get sexual kicks out of earthworms, did you know that they can also be eaten? (Can you tell I read up once on how to raise red wigglers for fun and profit? )
(My mind does work quite a bit differently than those of most folks, as you may have surmised. I had an entire packed moviehouse audience squirming madly to get away from me during "Bowling For Columbine." They were all fearful and horrified when an actor dressed as a gang member kept pulling weapons out of his clothing. I, on the other hand, was hysterical with laughter because #1, if he had been carrying that much firepower he wouldn't be able to move more than 100 yards without something falling out or his pants falling down or his becoming so tired he couldn't move, and #2 Moore was being his usual buffoon self and overstating his point to where his dramatic scene looked exactly like a scene from a Roadrunner/Wiley Coyote cartoon. I really do see and parse stuff very quickly and then play around with logical and illogical extensions of that.)
I wish. We have clay here that regularly turns to pottery midsummer, once all the frost aeration and moisture have gone. I think I need to visit Arrakis... no, come to think of it, those stayed in desert sands.
I wish. We have clay here that regularly turns to pottery midsummer, once all the frost aeration and moisture have gone. I think I need to visit Arrakis... no, come to think of it, those stayed in desert sands.
Yeah, but only STUPID people... BTW, the book is MUCH better than either of the adaptations.
For those who are going "Huh?" We're talking about Frank Herbert's novel "Dune" and sandworms. Herbert was a really really smart sci-fi writer.
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