"NC" wrote in message
news
George.com wrote:
Some interesting facts for worm denyers. If people still think worms are
an
option in their gardens or lawns this will put them right. I was a
little
surprised by some of the stats quoted here, impressive stuff. It
confirms
what we all know, to encourage worms have good availability of organic
material including organic fertilisers, eliminate or at least reduce
dramatically the pesticides and fungicides and easy on the synthetic
fertilisers. Kill your worms and kill your soil. Don't be like me who
used
to dump litres of toxic shit onto my lawn and top it off with a high
nitrogen synthetic fertiliser (grass on steroids). Luckily my worms
survived
my neglect. Some of the worms listed here are NZ residents so you may
not
get them.

http://www.gardenscience.co.nz/soil/...earthworms.htm



My new build lawn has very few worms - and I could do with some to
improve drainage, and the general condition of the under-soil. Can worms
be bougth mail order and simple scattered on the surface ? Or have
missed the boat now that the lawn is down and doing well ?

a rough guide to worm activity is to cut a spade cubed (spade L x W x D)
block out of your turf and hand count the worms in it. 7 or under per turf
block shows a serious worm deficiency. Anything around 23 or over shows
excellent numbers. Be aware you may have to sacrifice your sod for this. A
handy way to encourage worms is organic matter in the soil. A mulching mower
will leave lawn clippings in the soil for the worms. Organic fertilisers
such as pelletised animal poop or blood and bone can also help.

You could try digging some up from another garden (thats a lot of digging
mind) and scattering them across the soil to see if they will take. Depends
on what your soil is like and availability of food mind. Work on improving
your soil and the worms will come.
rob