Encouraging worms

[peter]

Hi all

My new garden needs revitalising, slowly, I am getting there.

I have worms around the garden, in the moist areas. The soil looks and
smells beautiful. The gardens have been neglected for years and I am fixing
them up.

What can I do to encourage the worms to return?
What can I do to encourage them to grow?

Do I need to 'worm farm' and then introduce them to the garden?

Any ideas welcome and cool.

Any site adresses would be cool to. I already googled, sort of.

Cheers

Pete

[HC]

G'day Pete

While this won't help, I just thought I'd tell you what happened this
morning.

I was in my sewing/computer room and could hear a magpie singing softly
outside the window and on looking out it was one of the juveniles that
hatched this summer just gone. He/she was singing to the worms as
he/she pulled them out of the lawn.....sort of a serenade before dinner??

Anyway it made me smile and I watched the maggie for a while. Love
watching nature!

Bronwyn ;-)

peter wrote:
> Hi all
>
> My new garden needs revitalising, slowly, I am getting there.
>
> I have worms around the garden, in the moist areas. The soil looks and
> smells beautiful. The gardens have been neglected for years and I am fixing
> them up.
>
> What can I do to encourage the worms to return?
> What can I do to encourage them to grow?
>
> Do I need to 'worm farm' and then introduce them to the garden?
>
> Any ideas welcome and cool.
>
> Any site adresses would be cool to. I already googled, sort of.
>
> Cheers
>
> Pete
>
>

[peter]

Hi Bronwyn,

That would have made a cool vid.
We have magpies all around our place, (5 acre NNSW), but none on our trees.
Great not having to worry about them when they get teritorial and all, but I
do wish we had them around, nonetheless.

We have five cats. That shouldn't worry maggies. Should it?

(my cat caught his first rabbit the other night. We have too many rabbits,
so this is cool. My plants near the house are not effected by rabbits.)

babble, babble.
peter
"HC" > wrote in message
...
> G'day Pete
>
> While this won't help, I just thought I'd tell you what happened this
> morning.
>
> I was in my sewing/computer room and could hear a magpie singing softly
> outside the window and on looking out it was one of the juveniles that
> hatched this summer just gone. He/she was singing to the worms as he/she
> pulled them out of the lawn.....sort of a serenade before dinner??
>
> Anyway it made me smile and I watched the maggie for a while. Love
> watching nature!
>
> Bronwyn ;-)
>
> peter wrote:
>> Hi all
>>
>> My new garden needs revitalising, slowly, I am getting there.
>>
>> I have worms around the garden, in the moist areas. The soil looks and
>> smells beautiful. The gardens have been neglected for years and I am
>> fixing them up.
>>
>> What can I do to encourage the worms to return?
>> What can I do to encourage them to grow?
>>
>> Do I need to 'worm farm' and then introduce them to the garden?
>>
>> Any ideas welcome and cool.
>>
>> Any site adresses would be cool to. I already googled, sort of.
>>
>> Cheers
>>
>> Pete

[Terry Collins]

peter wrote:
> Hi all
>
> My new garden needs revitalising, slowly, I am getting there.
>
> I have worms around the garden, in the moist areas. The soil looks and
> smells beautiful. The gardens have been neglected for years and I am fixing
> them up.
>
> What can I do to encourage the worms to return?
> What can I do to encourage them to grow?

Feed them.

This is how I do it,
1) collect all vegetable scraps and clean liquids (tea, vege water, etc)
scraps from kitchen in bucket.
2) dig hole in garden where I want worms.
3) empty a bucket or two of above in there
4) cover
5) repeat.


>
> Do I need to 'worm farm' and then introduce them to the garden?

Nope.

The worms you buy require much more food than the naturally occuring
worms. I am also finding a lot of the nature worms curled up in balls
atm, rather than moving through soil.

[peter]

"Terry Collins" > wrote in message
...
> peter wrote:
>> Hi all
>>
>> My new garden needs revitalising, slowly, I am getting there.
>>
>> I have worms around the garden, in the moist areas. The soil looks and
>> smells beautiful. The gardens have been neglected for years and I am
>> fixing them up.
>>
>> What can I do to encourage the worms to return?
>> What can I do to encourage them to grow?
>
> Feed them.
>
> This is how I do it,
> 1) collect all vegetable scraps and clean liquids (tea, vege water, etc)
> scraps from kitchen in bucket.
> 2) dig hole in garden where I want worms.
> 3) empty a bucket or two of above in there
> 4) cover
> 5) repeat.
>
>
>>
>> Do I need to 'worm farm' and then introduce them to the garden?
>
> Nope.
>
> The worms you buy require much more food than the naturally occuring
> worms. I am also finding a lot of the nature worms curled up in balls atm,
> rather than moving through soil.


Thanks Terry

So I'll dig a few holes and improvise. Thanks
Also thanks for the heads up regarding bought worms being the wrong ones
for the garden.
Seems like the garden has heaps of beautiful worms in some areas, now I will
do what I can to encourage them to spread.

Does keeping an area moist down a couple of feet? Does this encourage worms
to come to a new area?

[David Hare-Scott]

>
> What can I do to encourage the worms to return?
> What can I do to encourage them to grow?
>

Add much organic material to the soil, preferably fairly finely divided.
Some watering will help if you are in drought. They don't want it to be wet
just with some soil moisture, they will not thrive in really dry or really
wet soil.

> Do I need to 'worm farm' and then introduce them to the garden?
>

Not necesarily. If you have any worms they will spread and multiply by
themselves but you can help them by taking some of the good soil with worms
to areas that you have just enriched. Also many worm farms are compost
worms not earthworms, the two are different and compost worms will not
usually survive in the soil for the long term.

David

[Nancy]

best thing to encourage worms is horse manure.

"peter" > wrote in message
...
> Hi all
>
> My new garden needs revitalising, slowly, I am getting there.
>
> I have worms around the garden, in the moist areas. The soil looks and
> smells beautiful. The gardens have been neglected for years and I am
> fixing them up.
>
> What can I do to encourage the worms to return?
> What can I do to encourage them to grow?
>
> Do I need to 'worm farm' and then introduce them to the garden?
>
> Any ideas welcome and cool.
>
> Any site adresses would be cool to. I already googled, sort of.
>
> Cheers
>
> Pete
>

[Dwayne]

Good Morning. It has been my experience that if I lay cardboard or
newspaper on the ground the worms will come. They eat the material that the
cardboard and paper is made of as it deteriorates. Plus, it helps keep the
weeds down if laid between the rows. It also helps keep the moisture in the
ground like using mulch.

I wouldn't water deep terribly often just to attract worms. When you water,
they come out of the ground because they will drown if they don't. I would
water normally. It could be that they left that area for that reason.

Good luck. Dwayne


"peter" > wrote in message
...
>
> "Terry Collins" > wrote in message
> ...
>> peter wrote:
>>> Hi all
>>>
>>> My new garden needs revitalising, slowly, I am getting there.
>>>
>>> I have worms around the garden, in the moist areas. The soil looks and
>>> smells beautiful. The gardens have been neglected for years and I am
>>> fixing them up.
>>>
>>> What can I do to encourage the worms to return?
>>> What can I do to encourage them to grow?
>>
>> Feed them.
>>
>> This is how I do it,
>> 1) collect all vegetable scraps and clean liquids (tea, vege water, etc)
>> scraps from kitchen in bucket.
>> 2) dig hole in garden where I want worms.
>> 3) empty a bucket or two of above in there
>> 4) cover
>> 5) repeat.
>>
>>
>>>
>>> Do I need to 'worm farm' and then introduce them to the garden?
>>
>> Nope.
>>
>> The worms you buy require much more food than the naturally occuring
>> worms. I am also finding a lot of the nature worms curled up in balls
>> atm, rather than moving through soil.
>
>
> Thanks Terry
>
> So I'll dig a few holes and improvise. Thanks
> Also thanks for the heads up regarding bought worms being the wrong ones
> for the garden.
> Seems like the garden has heaps of beautiful worms in some areas, now I
> will do what I can to encourage them to spread.
>
> Does keeping an area moist down a couple of feet? Does this encourage
> worms to come to a new area?
>
>
>

[peter]

I'v got horse manure available. We wormed the horse last month. I heard
that worming tablets,etc, make the horse poo deadly for ground worms for up
to a month. Does this sound right?

"Nancy" > wrote in message
...
> best thing to encourage worms is horse manure.
>
> "peter" > wrote in message
> ...
>> Hi all
>>
>> My new garden needs revitalising, slowly, I am getting there.
>>
>> I have worms around the garden, in the moist areas. The soil looks and
>> smells beautiful. The gardens have been neglected for years and I am
>> fixing them up.
>>
>> What can I do to encourage the worms to return?
>> What can I do to encourage them to grow?
>>
>> Do I need to 'worm farm' and then introduce them to the garden?
>>
>> Any ideas welcome and cool.
>>
>> Any site adresses would be cool to. I already googled, sort of.
>>
>> Cheers
>>
>> Pete
>>
>
>

[Eyebright]

Hi all

My new garden needs revitalising, slowly, I am getting there.

I have worms around the garden,

What can I do to encourage the worms to return

Cheers

Pete

apply organic matter to the soil's surface.
also....earthworms have a requirement for calcium.

[peter]

Thanks all

I'll have some fun now.

Thanks Peter

"Eyebright" > wrote in message
...
>
> peter Wrote:
>> Hi all
>>
>> My new garden needs revitalising, slowly, I am getting there.
>>
>> I have worms around the garden,
>>
>> What can I do to encourage the worms to return
>>
>> Cheers
>>
>> Pete
>
> apply organic matter to the soil's surface.
> also....earthworms have a requirement for calcium.
>
>
> --
> Eyebright

[Pigsy]

"peter" > wrote in message

> I'v got horse manure available. We wormed the horse last month. I
> heard that worming tablets,etc, make the horse poo deadly for ground
> worms for up to a month. Does this sound right?


Yep.

[peter]

"Pigsy" <porcine@baconribs> wrote in message
...
> "peter" > wrote in message
>
>> I'v got horse manure available. We wormed the horse last month. I
>> heard that worming tablets,etc, make the horse poo deadly for ground
>> worms for up to a month. Does this sound right?
>
>
> Yep.
>
>
Damm.

One month was a typo, it should have read three months, per pill packet.
That sounds so long. We have a horse and it is not really fenced off from
the house area, so we get poo everywhere. It's been over a month since she
was wormed, so I cross my fingers. denial? yes.

[John Savage]

"peter" > writes:
>One month was a typo, it should have read three months, per pill packet.
>That sounds so long. We have a horse and it is not really fenced off from
>the house area, so we get poo everywhere. It's been over a month since she
>was wormed, so I cross my fingers. denial? yes.

People might be on different wavelengths here. I expect there's a world of
difference between:

(1) immediately using manure from a horse that has been given worming
medicine, compared with piling up its output over the next few days in
a corner of the paddock and 3 months later adding that by now well
rotted stuff to your worm bed, and

(2) never using on your garden any manure that the horse produces over the
3 months following its worming.

True?
--
John Savage (my news address is not valid for email)

[John Savage]

Eyebright > writes:
>peter Wrote:
>> What can I do to encourage the worms to return
>
>apply organic matter to the soil's surface.
>also....earthworms have a requirement for calcium.

For strong bones and teeth??

Equally important, keep the soil and the organic waste moist. With most
of Australia not getting much rain, this might mean having to water the
area with a hose every couple of days.
--
John Savage (my news address is not valid for email)