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My wife and I planted a new garden bed in the front of our house and we know that the soil is pretty bad. I was thinking that maybe we could buy some worms and dump them in the new bed and maybe that could help improve the soil? Does that make sense. Does any place in the triangle sell something like this (preferably around the southpoint mall or RTP)
Is your plant bed base all clay or have you amended the soil already? You absolutely have to amend the soil first. Worms alone will not churn a bed of clay into a desirable planting space.
We tilled and added topsoil, compost and fine pine chips which we were told help to break down the clay. Whatever it did it worked as we have glorious soil in our beds and ... thousands of worms. Whenever I turn a shovel of dirt over I see a couple of fatties squirming for cover.
You can tell the difference between the plants my builder put in and the ones we put in on amended soil - night & day in plant health and growth. It may seem like too much of an expense, but why bother putting plants in a bed that will not thrive?
If you have already amended the soil the worms will arrive on their own. Not sure how they find their happy place, but they do!
Worms do a great job of conditioning the soil, but I'm not sure just dumping them in the garden will do the trick -- they need a good environment or they'll just crawl off and find another home. They need a place to live and food to eat. There are two types of worms you may want to encourage -- redworms (aka red wigglers, Eisenia fetida) and standard earthworms. You want redworms for the compost, and earthworms for both the compost and the soil conditioning properties. For redworms, you may be better off setting up a worm bin than trying to keep them happy in the garden -- see Composting With Worms - Earth911.com.
For earthworms, information on earthworms in the garden is here: Worms
Information about promoting earthworms is about 2/3 down the page. Basically they need a nice layer of mulch and damp soil, plus some organic matter to eat. If you create those conditions, they'll be happy to show up for free.
There is a list of worm suppliers here: www/people/faculty/sherman/vermiculture/NC.HTM Twin Spruce Farm in Hillsborough may be your best bet. If you have already tilled in some good organic matter (Black Cow, etc), mulched, and have a consistent watering habit, you're ready for the worms. Otherwise I'd set that up before buying worms.
You can get worms at any fishing shop that sells live bait. I agree, though, that you want to amend the soil thoroughly first. If you want to do a worm bin, you want Red Wrigglers. If you want to put them right in the dirt Night Crawlers or Red Wrigglers would probably be okay. The Red Wrigglers are preferred for worm bins because they're relatively happy in a small space. Night Crawlers like to dig about a yard down and surface at night. Not good for a small space like a worm bin. Fishing shop should have all these.
You may be tempted to go with Earthworms b/c of their size but stick with red worms. The earthworms just can't handle what the red worms can which are better suitted for decomposting. Besides you will get more red worms for the money.
I have a compost pile that is FILLED with earthworms that were just attatracted to the pile I guess. Every shovelful has 10-20 worms in it. It's crazy! I don't know where they all came from!
I have a compost pile that is FILLED with earthworms that were just attatracted to the pile I guess. Every shovelful has 10-20 worms in it. It's crazy! I don't know where they all came from!
The ground Lamishra. The ground.
Sounds like I need to get me a pile going so that I have instant fishing bait.
My grandpa used to have a hole in the ground with a board over it behind his shed where he dumped kitchen scraps and the occasional sheet of newspaper. Pulled red wigglers (The Cadillac of Worms!) out of it to go fishing every week. I'm sure he'd find it funny as heck that they now call that "vermiculture" and the worm poop sells for $20 a bag.
Here's a neat trick to add to the required soil amendments you need to make:
Next time you go to Starbucks (if you do) they have a barrel or tub with bags of used coffee grounds in it, free for the taking. Put a big scoop of the grounds around each plant/shrub and trowel it down a little around each plant into the soil. The worms will seemingly fall from the sky to your beds.
You also can add a mix of peat moss and garden soil to what you have in the beds now, and compost leaves and grass to add later. Turn the pile every 6 months and keep it wet when you can. Moisture dramatically speeds up the process. Add veggie scraps and soft fruit that you would otherwise toss out. Introduce this brown gold to your beds anytime it's ready.
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