If you are looking for a way to make your garden more beautiful and rich with life, then this article is for you!
Have you ever wanted to attract worms into your garden? Here, we will give you some helpful tips on how to do just that and gather worms in bundles into your garden.
Worms help a garden produce better and healthier fruits, flowers, and vegetables.
Are you thinking how you wouldn’t want to eat anything that was fertilized by worms?
Think again! Worm castings often contain more nutrients than chemical fertilizers do. Earthworms are natural fertilizer for your vegetable garden.
They are considered to be a premium fertilizer because they supply plants with lots of healthy nutrients.
Worm castings also attract beneficial insects to your garden, which is always a good thing.
Luckily, there are several ways that you can attract these fascinating creatures! The following 10 tips will help you do just that:
Add Organic Matter To Your Garden
It is like fertilizer for worms. Without it, worms are unable to thrive.
If your garden doesn’t have enough organic matter in it, then consider adding some mulch or compost.
Keep weeds out of the garden too.
Worms love it when you let your garden become overgrown with weeds.
But if they get too much to eat in your garden, they will likely leave and go in search of greener pastures.
If you have trouble with weeds, consider investing in something like a mulching mower or weed whacker to keep them at bay.
Use Bales Of Straw
Some farmers swear by straw for getting worms into the garden, and there is even some scientific evidence that this works!
If you want to give straw a try, you should buy some mulch hay bales and lay them out around the garden.
You can either stack them on top of one another or leave them loose in the garden bed.
Don’t be surprised if you start seeing worms appear within days!
Add Compost To Your Garden
This is probably one of the best ways to attract worms into your garden.
All you have to do is add some compost and soon you’ll start seeing them crawling all over it!
You can find worm castings at your local garden center, and they are really easy to work with, so this is a great way to go if you don’t want to wait for worms to show up on their own.
Add A Worm Bed
If you want to attract worms as fast as possible, consider building a worm bed or starting a worm farm.
A worm bed or worm farm is nothing more than a box with dirt or other garden soil piled high inside it (well, it’s a little more than that if you’re getting serious about worm farming…some people even start a worm farm for profit!)
Worms love this sort of environment because there’s plenty of food and water for them to eat and drink, so this is an excellent way to attract them.
Add Leaf Mulch In The Garden
Plant some fresh green leaves anywhere in the garden to entice worms.
They love them!
Be careful not to add too much though or they will end up taking over everything else in your yard.
Another great reason to plant trees and shrubs in your yard.
Add A Water Source For Them
If you want to attract worms, you need to provide them with the right conditions.
Of course, this means that they’ll need food and water.
So if you can find a way for them to get some refreshment, they will stick around.
Plant Cover Crops In The Garden
Cover crops are a great way to maintain soil quality and fertility, and they also help you get more worms in the garden.
Just plant your cover crop of choice and watch for worms. They’ll love it!
Be sure that you use organic material for this, though. Otherwise, you will have more weeds sprouting up.
Add Wood Chips For Attraction
Some gardeners swear by using wood chips to attract worms, but it’s not for everyone.
Give it a try and see what you think.
The worms will love it, especially if other organic materials are mixed in with the wood chips.
Keep Your Soil Moist
Earthworms thrive in moist soil conditions and dislike dry soil. Worms prefer moisture in the soil in order to breathe as they uptake and absorb oxygen through their skin.
Keep your soil moisture at around 60-70% (when you squeeze your soil, you should not have more than a few drops of water falling out).
If you go too heavy with your watering can, you may find your soil surface crawling with worms trying to escape as they can also drown if their environment is too wet. (This is why you might see worms come out after it rains)
Benefits Of Attracting Worms
- They Improve Soil Structure And Nutrient Content
Worms help to transfer nutrients from the earth into your plants and other vegetation.
- You Can Harvest Their Castings
If you decide to put worms in your garden, you should be aware that they will multiply if given the right conditions.
A worm’s excrement is also known as “castings.”
These castings are rich in nutrients and can be used to nourish your garden, potted plants, or container vegetation.
- They Suppress Soil-Borne Diseases
Worms eat large quantities of organic matter, preventing it from rotting, which reduces the risk of soil-borne diseases.
- They Attract More Earthworms
Have you ever wanted to attract earthworms into your garden?
They will certainly make your garden soil more attractive and alluring to other earthworms and you’ll find increasing earthworm activity and reproduction if your soil improves and the worms are happy.
- They Aerate The Soil
Earthworms help with the process of nutrient absorption into plants, but they also supply much-needed oxygen to the soil.
- Worms Help Plants Grow Faster
One of the best gifts that worms give is their ability to speed up plant growth.
They do this by bringing extra nutrients and organic matter to the roots of plants.
This allows the plant to grow faster.
- Worms Are Great For Composting
You don’t have to give away your worms if you’re not interested in using them as garden helpers because you catch worms and can use them to make some wonderful compost as part of a worm farm or worm bin.
You can even collect worms if you have too much worm activity in your garden soil.
Most species you’ll find in your garden, like red wigglers, can be used as composting worms. Red wigglers are the most popular composting worms and feed voraciously on the surface of the ground.
Nightcrawlers, which are also a common garden worm in some parts, can also be used to compost but they’ll need a deeper soil bed as they like to dig deep and create burrows.
If you want worm castings but don’t want to attract worms into your garden, then you can buy worm castings at any garden center.
In Conclusion
The key to attracting worms into your garden is to provide organic matter and following the tips above.
If you do this, your soil will attract more than enough worms and the many benefits that come with them.
This is the material they will eat, and it provides them with everything they need to survive and thrive.
Leaf litter, plant debris and kitchen scraps work great and composting worms will recycle nutrients into worm poop aka worm castings aka black gold for the organic gardener!
So if you can provide them with enough organic matter, then they will stick around and multiply, increasing your worm population!
If you see more earthworms in your garden, then you’re doings something right.
If you don’t want to buy mulch, you can always use old leaves and grass clippings.
We hope you’ve enjoyed this article on how to attract earthworms to your garden.
A healthy population of earthworms to your garden, means healthy soils (see here).
If you have any comments or questions, then please feel free to leave them below.
