Notice the lowly earthworm, squirming away, setting about its everyday organization. Basic animals you might think but they have rather an important usage in the garden. Did you understand the earthworms are nature’s very first gardeners? They don’t exist just for kids to eat and anglers to use as bait.
Some Basic Earthworm Facts.
Earthworms exist in nearly every type of soil however the much healthier the soil the higher the numbers. A healthy soil allows great deals of air and moisture, both of which are needed by the earthworm for an ongoing existence. Earthworms have no lungs like you or me however rather breathe through their skin. Their entire skin absorbs oxygen and launches carbon dioxide. They likewise need moisture to help them in respiration however too much wetness is not good for them.
There are 4 kinds of earthworm that you may face:.
Nightcrawlers: 8 to 10 inches long and the fisherman’s favourite.
Garden Worms: 5 to 7 inches long and discovered typically in wet soils.
Manure Worms: 4 to 5 inches long and discovered in manure abundant soils.
Red Worms: 3 to 4 inches long and the most commercially readily available.
Why Earthworms in the Garden?
A garden without earthworms would lose out on all of the excellent benefits that they bring to it. Their very first job is to till the soil by tunneling through it. Tunnels developed enable air and moisture to pass quickly through the soil, creating a healthy environment for plants. Tunnels keep water that the plants can take up and also hold air to help bacteria break down raw material within the soil.
After digestion earthworms produce excrement about the size of a pin head. This excrement is called “castings” or “vermicompost” and is an outstanding soil conditioning material. It improves properties of the soil such as porosity and moisture retention, help plant growth and helps in the fight versus insects and diseases.
Increasing Earthworm Population in the Garden.
How does one go about increasing the variety of earthworms in their garden soil? Well the very best method to do so is to include more raw material to the soil. Earthworms can not get enough of the stuff.and will seek it out anywhere they can discover it.
Lastly …
The earthworm is just as crucial to the garden as the garden enthusiast that maintains it because they till the soil and add a soil conditioner in the form of castings. They are as much a gardener as you are. The next time you see one wiggling on the ground in front of you bend down and say “got any good gardening suggestions?” You never know it may answer.
I will leave the final word to a one Charles Darwin who when had this to say about the earthworm:
” The plow is one of the most ancient and most valuable of man’s inventions; but long before he existed, the land was in fact regularly plowed and still continues to be thus plowed by earthworms. It may be doubted whether there are many other animals which have played so important a part in the history of the world, as have these lowly organized creatures.”.
