Beyond Organic Gardening - The Critical Role of Living Soil And Worms In Our Gardens!
Worm castings (also known as worm poop) are considered garden gold because they're a critical and rich source of dozens of nutrients that help our plants thrive!
Just Add Worms?
If worms play such a key to our plants' thriving, will simply adding worms to our garden solve the problem? Probably not.
If you don't already have an active and thriving worm community in your garden, then the soil is probably not hospitable for them.
The soil isn't dead and lifeless because it doesn't have worms; it doesn't have worms because the soil is dead and lifeless.
“The soil isn’t dead and lifeless because it doesn’t have worms; it doesn’t have worms because the soil is dead and lifeless.”
If you sink your hand into your garden soil and grab a handful of dirt, do you uncover a bunch of worms? If not, and you keep digging and still don't find worms... your soil is dead.
Some of you are arguing, "But I'm adding compost!" That's excellent. But while compost is great for plants, it's not food for worms.
Dead Garden Soil
If you've read my previous post about square-foot gardening (of which I'm a huge fan), then you know that square-foot gardening soil is made of three components: vermiculite, peat moss, and compost. The plants (at least the annuals do well), but this soil is dead.
Yes, the compost feeds the plants, and that's fantastic (especially if you're using your homemade compost)! But fully finished compost no longer contains the actively decaying matter or living entities within it.
“Fully finished compost -- that beautiful, rich black gold that smells fabulous -- is dead.”
Meaning there are no actively decaying or currently living organisms in it.
The square-foot gardening system works well for short-lived plants (like annuals), but a gardener who goes beyond organic knows that even these annuals can be so much more!
I also have raised beds (in the style of a square-foot garden) that contain raspberries, blueberries, strawberries, and more plants that return year after year. In order for long-term plants to thrive, they require soil that's alive!
Living Garden Soil
For living soil, we first observe how God created the system as a whole, including getting to know our mycelium (the natural forest network known as the wood-wide web), learning the art of "chop and drop" (to replenish the nutrients these plants require), and the importance of worms (and their castings, known as "garden gold") in our gardens. Each of these and so much more play enormous roles in sustainable, God-centered gardening.
I highly recommend starting with raised beds (see my square-foot gardening post) and then adding each component along your journey.
Ways To Add Worms
There are two main ways gardeners typically add worms to their beds.
1. Getting a special worm bin or
2. Adding worms directly to the garden beds
There's certainly merit to keeping a worm bin as you can utilize the liquid and the castings and place them in the garden where you need them the most.
Unfortunately, there are a plethora of downsides to worm bins, including the initial expense (some of these are several hundred dollars to get started), plus the maintenance, followed by monitoring and regulating the temperature for the worms throughout the year (often moving them to a cool shady spot in the summer and bringing them inside the house or garage during harsh winters).
To get this fabulous garden gold, I may consider these efforts, yet I believe there's a better way. And like everything in life, God's way is the best way.
God doesn't require plastic bins for worms; He gave them the forest floor to thrive within. So let's take our advice from the creator and source of all life and observe how God designed worms to thrive.
Forest Floor
The forest floor is our perfect example of witnessing life as it thrives.
I live in the Pacific Northwest, and as I walk through the forest in my backyard, life is everywhere.
The forest floor is thick with leaves, branches, and the active decay of fallen trees. With my hand, this top layer is easily moved to expose a layer of partially broken-down organic material that's teeming with worms and other living organisms. Just below this active layer is the rich, nearly black soil that gives the forest that beautifully fresh, earthy fragrance.
The top layer is the natural mulch that provides protection for the living creatures below it. The active layer -- where the worms thrive -- consists of partially broken-down organic matter (plant and animal). And the layer beneath them is the garden gold (that contains the worm castings).
Ways To Add Worms
To keep it more natural -- the way God intended -- my conclusion is to add worms to the garden beds.
Step one: Add Food. Step Two: Add Worms.
We need to add food first and then add (or invite) worms – so they can thrive.
It turns out that the food we’d feed the worms is food that our plants also enjoy. So, feeding them together (in the garden bed) makes sense.
That also eliminates the expense, space, and maintenance of a worm bin, plus having to regulate its temperature (since worms in the ground can regulate their temperature by moving higher or lower in the soil).
Plus, there’s synergy in keeping the worms with the plants… just as God created it.
Not all worm castings are created the same. The better the food, the better the castings.
What Do Worms Eat?
Worms eat almost all kinds of organic matter, which is anything that was alive but is now dead (or dying), like plants or animals. And the good microbes that worms leave in their castings benefit from trace minerals.
If our soil lacks worms, it lacks organic matter (along with trace minerals and microbes).
The Two-Part Plan for Happy Worms
Part One: Bedding. Part Two: Food
Worm Bedding: (Carbon that worms will eventually eat)
Sawdust, wood chips, coconut coir, and/or Leaves (many people use shredded cardboard, but I prefer these more natural sources instead).
Worm Food:
Rock Dust (Rock Dust can include Azomite, rock phosphate, etc.) (rock dust feeds the microbes with up to 70 trace minerals – not just three: NPK)
Kelp/Seaweed
Bio Char
Bone Meal
Molasses (quick energy food for the microbes) (I think I’ll start with dried/powdered molasses to avoid the mess)
Used coffee grounds
Chop and drop (leaves from garden plants)
Oyster Shells (or ground-up eggshells)
Mix the bedding and food, then top off with
Food scraps (preferably blended in a blender first)
Then cover with a top layer of brown (sawdust, wood chips, coconut coir, and/or Leaves)
Each time you add food scraps (greens), add twice as many browns (bedding).
It’s a lot like composting right in your garden beds.
I get my Azomite, Rock Phosphate, Bone Meal, and Oyster Shells, in a brand (I love) called “Down To Earth” (online or at our local feed store). I also get my BioChar at the feed store as well.
Yes, you can order worms online (the best worms for our gardens are “Red Wigglers”).
However, I might use “Nightcrawler” worms around my fruit trees (because they go deeper).
A popular brand (that guarantees live arrival) is “Uncle Jim’s Worm Farm.” That’s who I plan to use (unless Todd finds red wigglers at the feed store).
We can add these two parts (bedding and food) throughout the beds or in a single location within each bed. Most people add a plastic, in-ground worm bin directly in each garden bed. And, supposedly, the worms move throughout the beds (not just in the bins).
Here’s a video showing this technique: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=991qDFd-uaI
Upon further “digging,” LOL, I was concerned about adding plastic into my garden beds – especially in summer heat – in case the heated plastic releases cancerous toxins into my organic garden. Ugh!
We can still do these things without the in-ground worm bins, and I think it’ll be more natural and even better for the soil, worms, and plants!
I plan to add all (or most) of these ingredients directly to my garden beds.
Plus, instead of waiting so long for my compost to be perfectly finished, I’ll add it while it still has some life in it and let the worms enjoy that food, too!