The sight of slimy and gooey earthworms is enough to make most people cringe. However, gardeners treat these creatures as treasures, and rightly so. After all, worms have long been associated to healthy and productive soil. And when you have healthy soil, your plants will grow healthy too.
Contrary to what most people believe, earthworms don’t feed off of dirt but instead, the bacteria and fungi on decomposing matter. After digestion, they excrete organic matter back into the soil in the form of ‘worm casts’ or worm poop in layman’s term.
Why you need worms in your garden
Well, why not?
Worms play a significant role in soil construction and recycling of organic waste. It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say that the world would have been buried in decaying vegetation if not for these wonderful creatures. Here are three reasons why you need to have them in your garden.
They improve drainage
Earthworms burrow and channel deep within the soil. In doing so, they help loosen and aerate the soil which improves drainage in the process. What it does for your garden is it allows water to infiltrate more and the tunnels they create also act as an irrigation system.
Loose soil also allows for air to circulate so the roots of your plants won’t suffocate. Compared to compact soil, a land that’s loose enables plant roots to penetrate deeper into the ground. This means that your plants will have access to more nutrients to make them healthier.
Enriches the soil
Humus is a dark brown-black component of soil that comes from the decomposition of organic matter. It is also known as ‘black gold’ because it contains thousands of organic compounds that plants love. So what does humus have to do with earthworms? Simple, worms help create humus and make it readily available for plants to consume.
Humus is also covered with negative charges that prevent positively charged plant foods like potassium and calcium from being washed away in the soil. Additionally, humus has buffering acidity, so you don’t have to worry too much about your soil’s pH level.
This is especially good news if your garden has one of the more difficult types of soil to work with like clay or sandy soil. Worms can help improve its composition!
Improves the structure of the soil
A soil that is rich in humus (thanks to earthworms!) also contains microbial glues. These sticky substances bind the mineral particles together which in turn helps to preserve the organic matter in the soil longer.
Worm castings also help in improving the fertility and structure of any soil. This means that the soil will be more resistant to erosion, ensuring that future generations will still have soil to utilise.
Attracting worms to your garden
One excellent way of adding humus and worm castings to your garden soil is through vermicompost. If you’re already familiar with traditional composting, you know how useful it is. However, this process takes a lot longer to produce results, and that’s probably why vermicomposting is slowly getting a lot of attention.
This is not to take anything away from vermicomposting as, without a doubt, it’s a great way to make your garden soil richer in nutrients. But, if at all possible, introducing earthworms directly to your garden is the better route to go. Do this, and you’ll have fewer things to worry about in your garden.
Aerating and improving the soil’s drainage is your job as the gardener. However, if you have earthworms in your garden, you don’t have to do these things anymore. The worms will be more than glad to do all the work for you.
If this sounds like a great idea to you, here are ways that you can tempt worms to your garden.
Increase their numbers
Worms can be purchased from most garden centres and adding them manually to your garden is the easiest to do. However, doing so will most likely work only for a short time. What you need to understand is that worms will naturally live and increase their population on their own as long as you provide them with the perfect environment to live in.
The first thing you have to do is test your soil for its pH level. Always remember that worms like it when the soil has a neutral pH level. Additionally, make sure that your soil is organically-rich. If it isn’t, you need to add a lot of organic matter to it for the worms to munch on.
Anything organic can be added to your soil such as grass clippings, straw, animal manure, chopped leaves, etc. Kitchen scraps will also work well except for meat and anything with citrus. The former will attract flies, and the latter will make the soil acidic. See to it that the worms’ environment is damp and cool, but not too dry nor too wet.
Say no to chemicals
It’s essential that you shy away from using chemical fertilisers in your garden if you want the worms to thrive. You’d want to use a nitrogen-rich compost to enrich the soil further but see to it that you don’t use the ones that are synthetically made. Doing the latter will have the opposite effect since it will make the worms go away.
If you want to be successful in introducing worms to your garden, it’s critical that you keep everything organic. Worms are easily affected by chemical and physical changes that happen to their environment. That said, stay away from using synthetic pesticides as well. If you have to, go for organic pesticides or perhaps introduce natural predators into your garden.
Don’t skimp on watering
Gardening is all about dedication and commitment. It’s not something that you do on a whim and hope for the best. And with worms in your garden, it’s not just the plants that you need to water regularly but also the soil. Worms love to be in a cool and moist environment. Keep it that way through regular watering.
However, avoid too much moisture in the soil, or it will become smelly and muddy-looking. At the same time, the worms will die if the soil becomes too dry. Take a sample of the soil in your hand and squeeze it. If no water drips out, but it feels moist, that means your worms are getting just the right amount of moisture.
Avoid deep tilling
Tilling works wonders by loosening the soil to allow air and water penetration easily for your plants to use. However, a soil with an abundance of earthworms doesn’t necessarily need to be tilled. They should be more than enough to loosen the soil on their own.
But if you have to till the soil, see to it that it’s not too deep to avoid damaging the burrows created by the worms. Earthworms also prefer an undisturbed environment. So if you happen to destroy their tunnels, it’s very likely that they’ll flee from your garden.
Conclusion
Without a doubt, earthworms are one of the most amazing creatures in the world. As long as you keep your soil an ideal environment for earthworms to grow and populate, your gardening project is sure to be a success no matter what you plant.
