On Jan 13, 12:28*am, "David E. Ross" wrote:
On 1/12/12 4:37 PM, Father Haskell wrote:









On Jan 12, 12:53 pm, "David E. Ross" wrote:
On 1/11/12 8:35 PM, wrote:

thinking of purchasing a couple hundred pound of worm castings for
fertilizing vegetable garden........worms are fed peat.......I understand
peat is somewhat acidic, could this be a problem?

Instead of buying castings and then the effort to work the castings into the soil, buy worms. *Spread a thin layer of an organic mulch on your vegetable garden over the worms. *Keep the bed moist but not wet. *As the mulch decomposes, add more. *The worms will aerate the soil and leave their castings.

By "organic mulch" I mean partially composted leaves and grass clippings, the output of an paper shredder, or wood chips generated from a tree service's pruning efforts. *At first, you might need to add a little nitrogen to the mulch since the composting process absorbs nitrogen.

Compost worms and earthworms are different creatures. *Earthworms
are already present in garden soil, no need to buy. *Compost worms
won't survive freezing -- they stay near the surface, whereas
earthworms
can survive winter by tunneling deep under the frost line. *In indoor
bins, they're remarkably tough, able to survive a year or more
without
being fed. *A $2.00 carton of "trout worms" from the bait store will
last forever once introduced into a bin.

In my garden, I have earthworms under the mulch on my beds. *I was not
suggesting that "gaffer" use his vegetable garden as a compost pile. *I
was merely suggesting that he promote earthworm activity by providing a
layer of mulch.

Which is pretty much all he has to do. It'll return him
all of the benefits of tilling, with less work.