Wonderful world of worms

‘I never see worms in the garden any more…’
A sad but telling comment on the state of our soils in urban Perth WA. Actually they are often there but pretty well hidden and deep down . There are many species of native worms, and they live deeper in the ground, eat a bit of leaf litter and just cruise around aerating the soil. The worms we have in a ‘worm farm’ are compost worms that originated in Europe and UK, usually red wrigglers or tiger worms.. These worms are generally smaller and hungrier, and they follow the food- nomadic. But if you keep these worms, they need some attention and it is a good idea to have a few reasons and not just one, to have this responsibility!

The reason we often prefer these over our native worms is their voracious appetites.  The imported worms  will live closer to the surface and get through a lot more organic material. The down side to this is if the compost worms don’t get enough food they will wander off looking for it and then die if the search is fruitless.

They have no teeth or eyes, breathe through their skin, have 5 hearts (who can boast that little fact!!?), and will eat anything that was alive once (think about that one).

Worms are used domestically and commercially for several reasons;-

• to process our organic waste to microbe rich fertiliser. (Their gut is filled with billions of bacteria excreted into the castings (poo))
• reduce waste going to bins (nearly 50% of our domestic waste bin is organic)
• enrich the microbe poor soil.  (Perth soils are among the poorest in the world- sand, limestone or gravel)

Worms are very easy creatures, but they are living creatures and do require some attention to get the best results.

1. They don’t like it too hot. In Perth WA it will never, get too cold for the worms, but heat is a killer. Think of all the ways we keep cool. Spraying with cold water, ice blocks, freezing the food- we must think like a worm.
2. They have no teeth. While they will eat anything that was alive (including meat, citrus and onions!), the material needs to be soft enough for them to slurp up. The bacteria in the food must be acting to break it down to this point of ingestion.
3. They eat near the surface but don’t like the light. The material is best mixed into the surface area (to help cover it with destructive microbes) and covered with a damp cloth or piece of carpet.
4. Can be over-fed. As you cannot take worms for a walk or sit them on the couch to watch TV, the only attention they get is to -feed them. While they do eat a lot, they are only small and should be fed only when most of the previous food has disappeared. Overfeeding creates a smelly, hot and anaerobic (no air) environment. They only need food about once or twice a week!!
5. They die quietly. Worms are easy going but if starved or over heated they will die (even the WA summer air temp OUT of the sun can be too hot).
6. The castings and juice (wiz) contains billions of bacteria. Always put beneath the soil surface as UV light will destroy the bacteria in a few hours. So either dig it in or use mixed with water. Use the liquid collected within a couple of days and put sub-surface or under mulch.

So the main trick to getting any life back into our sandy soils is to add more organic material. Mulch is a good start and an essential for Perth’s hot, dry conditions.

But don’t forget a good quantity of clay (5% extra to organic material added), to assist in holding it in the soil. Sand lets all the nutrients just slide away down the sandy plug hole into waterways or groundwater.