Adding compost to garden soil boosts available nutrients for plants and increases moisture holding capacity. Compost can be purchased or made in a compost pile or bin.
What is a Composting Worm?
Another way to add compost to soil is via composting worms. To be clear, composting worms, or red wiggler worms, or red worms, or tiger worms are not your ordinary garden worm. Composting worms live in top layers of soil, under rotting matter. They are sometimes found underneath manure. Red worms do not burrow like night crawlers.
Composting worms added to the garden and fed regularly will add compost directly to the soil.
Create a Feeding Site for Composting Worms
To create a feeding site for red worms in the garden, try a worm tower. A worm tower can be made from a length of 4" or greater PVC with large holes drilled in the bottom portion. The tower should reach a good 6 inches into the soil. This is where the holes are drilled. The top portion should stick up out of the soil 4-6 inches or a little more.
Place the tower in the garden with the holes under the soil. Add a pound or so of red worms into the tower. Add several inches of food to the tower. Worm food can be kitchen scraps, grass clippings, or other green matter. The best worm food is nitrogen-rich green materials. Dried, brown, carbon-rich materials such as dried leaves are not the best worm food.
Cover the food with a handful of mulch, or shredded newspaper to help deter flies. A patch of screen over the end of the tower secured with a rubber band will also help deter flies. Pour water in and around the tower.
Check the tower about once a week and add more food if necessary. Be aware that compost will form inside the tower, and will need to be pushed out to allow room for more food.
Place worm towers every 10 to 15 square feet of garden space for optimum results.
Rounding Up Composting Worms
At the end of the season, the worms can be rounded up and placed in a worm bin. In the bin, the worms will eat kitchen scraps and make compost all winter long. When the nights turn cooler, in the lower 50's, it's time for worm round up.
Pull out the worm towers and pull out any food, compost, and worms. Place the worms in a worm composting bin. Replace the tower and add food. After 2 or 3 days, return and remove the food and worms. Repeat until all worms have been removed.
Adding worms to the garden will improve soil texture, moisture holding capacity, and nutrients.
Cassandra Truax - Cassandra might be considered a jack of all trades. Starting out with a BA in Spanish with a minor in Environmental Studies, she decided ...
