The Importance Of Earthworms In An Organic Garden.

I described the different species of earthworms in chapter 16 of The Earthworms Farmers Bible. However, little of the information provided in that chapter will be germane to the organic gardener. Although there are hundreds of earthworm species, only one, the Red Wiggler composting earthworm, plays a significant role in the organic garden. For all practical purposes, earthworms may be divided into two categories. The common fishing worm, or night crawler, is a borrowing earthworm which lives in tunnels deep in the ground. The opening of its tunnels are surrounded by pyramid shaped mounds of earthworm castings. These worms usually are named after the regions in which they are found. Examples of these worms include, the African, Canadian, Arkansas and European Night crawlers. These large earthworms are primarily used for fishing and are inefficient composters; thus, they play a minimal role in the garden. In nature their tunnels help to aerate the soil and their castings serve to fertilize the soil, but their primary purpose is to feed nocturnal birds and animals. The important thing to understand, from a gardeners point of view, is that Red Wiggler Composting earthworms are the same throughout the world. These small reddish colored worms also are commonly referred to as manure worms because they frequently, if not invariably, found in manure piles. Red Wigglers are ferocious composters being capable, under ideal circumstances, of consuming their weight in organic waste every day. They also are ideal worms for composting because they double in number every three months; thus, if you begin with a small number of Red Wigglers you will have a small army of hard working composters before you know it. The reader may be wondering if there is such a thing as a supper hybrid composting earthworm. The answer is no, it is possible to produce a hybrid earthworm but, as with the mule, they are sterile and cannot reproduce. So, if you want to obtain some Red Wigglers for your garden, your will have to purchase them from a breeder or, better yet, get them for free from a manure pile. Now that you understand the difference between a night crawler and a composting earthworm it's time to put them to work in your garden. The first, and by far and away, the most important role of a composting earthworm is to turn organic waste into earthworm casting, the most valuable organic fertilizer on the face of the earth. I will have a great deal more to say about this all important organic fertilizer in a subsequent chapter, but for now understand that earthworm casting are the ideal organic fertilizer, nothing else even comes close! If you have a small organic garden it will be possible to generate enough earthworm castings to meet your gardening needs just by composting your organic kitchen wastes and newspapers in a small indoor tote or covered outdoor wormery. A large garden will require more earthworm casting that you will be able to produce just by composting your household wastes. If that is the case, you will have to find an extraneous source of organic material to feed your composting earthworms. In most areas the raw material will come from a horse stable or some other farming operation that produces an abundance of manure. Alternately, organic waste produced by a restaurant, grocery store or garden maintenance operation may provide a food source for your worms, most often at no cost to you. Composting earthworms also are a valuable asset to your garden because, if conditions are right, they will live in the garden soil and continually fertilize it with freshly produced earthworm castings. In this respect, a significant number of earthworms in the soil around the plants in your garden indicates that you are indeed gardening the organic way and that everything is copacetic in your garden oasis. If, on the other hand, your garden soil is worm less you will have to add generous amounts of manures, humus, worm castings and other organic material to the inhabitable soil to rehabilitate it and make it suitable for the ecosystem necessary to grow plants and vegetables in the absence of the potentially toxic reagents in chemical fertilizers.