Why Worms?

Why Worms? By Barbara Fix, Lipscomb Enterprises Inc. Researcher & Writer

So what’s all the fuss about worms? It seems every organic grower and every compost aficionado extols the virtues of these wiggly guys. It might be time to get to the bottom of why…

To start with, worms benefit our gardens by tunneling into the earth, opening up the soil, and exposing it to the air. This tunneling enriches the soil with nutrients for the lush garden plants we desire, and it helps with irrigation as we water our plants. Their travel through the soil also leaves room for the delicate root system of plants to branch out, offering them better absorption for nutrients and moisture. Not only that, but the worm’s waste product contributes prosperous, potassium, and nitrogen to the soil that greatly benefits the health of vegetables and other garden plants.

It may be hard to view the common earth worm as the pit-bull of the garden, but in many ways they are! Earth worm’s waste product acts as a natural repellant for garden pests and it protects garden soil from disease.

Now, lets move on to the compost bin, for it isn’t only the garden where worms work their miracles! As they tunnel through your compost bin, feasting on food scrapes and organic waste, they open up the compost materials to the air and that, in turn, promotes moisture which turbo-charges the materials in your compost into rich humus that gardens love. Here too, their waste product enriches your compost with nutrients, improving the environment of your vegetable garden. To benefit your garden with the rich fertilizer and soil conditioning worms provide, you can purchase them fairly cheaply. Look specifically for the best “workers”: either Red Wigglers or Red Earthworms under the search terms vermiculture, vermicompost, vermicast, worm hummus, worm manure, worm castings. or worm composting.

The next time you see these wiggly little guys tunneling through your garden or compost bin, you might not go as far as to give them a hug, but a few words of encouragement wouldn’t hurt.