firstly, i am thrilled to announce that after nearly 6 months of work, i am
getting more & more & more worms (having started from a worm population of
approximately none - when i first began planting, i could have cried. the
only worms i had were some which hitchhiked in my compost bin). this is very
exciting for me as much of our soil is acid clay riddled with rocks. it's
becoming loamier, browner, crumblier, healthy-and-good-smelling and
(obviously) wormier in front of my eyes. despite the horrible soil, i've
been actually quite pleased with how much is going _right_ in the garden,
which is a boost to the confidence as well. because i have about as much
patience as a newborn baby, i couldn't see the point in putting off planting
while i improved the soil - my philosophy being that planting will improve
the soil as well as provide an impetus to improvement anyway :-) so there's
my brag, thank you for reading g

secondly, a REALLY INTERESTING worm book i've borrowed from the library. i
will have to buy a copy as all the dry science stuff cannot possibly be
retained for long after the book goes back (or indeed 5 minutes after
reading).
david murphy: organic growing with worms - a handbook for a better
environment (penguin [viking imprint] 2005, isbn 0 670 04174 2)

it's all about worms (obviously), both in terms of physiology, behaviour,
i.d. etc; and how to save the earth (or at least your own garden) using
them, and also gives a lot of infomation both on worms in
gardening/agriculture and also farming the worms themselves either for your
own use or for profit. (it covers compost worms as well as earthworms.) it's
NOT a gardening book & isn't meant to be - the author concurs he actually
knows nothing about gardening - but more about what worms do and how they
effect the soil (and therefore the farm/garden) positively. as gardeners we
understand that the soil itself is so vitally important to success & that
"worms are good", but this book really gets into _how_ the process works &
by extension what one can do to encourage worms & then utilise their
tireless activity.

also as a side note, he explains how preparation 500 (biodynamics) actually
works - sort of. sadly, the term "cosmic forces" was used without enough
irony (sigh), but at least it's an explanation which makes actual sense. (i
strongly suspect one could make prep 500 without all the hoodoo & bullshit &
it would still work, now i've read a reasonably-rational explanation, i.e.
that the process itself - without the hoodoo - should work). (that's a rant
for another day, though). it tells you how to make your own prep 500 for
that matter.

highly recommended!!!
kylie