Garden is In and Worms!

1st lettuce, radish, spinach bed

The gardens are finally all planted. I just have one area left for a second planting of corn that I'll do in about 2 weeks. But otherwise; the gardens are in! Always a great feeling.

Transplanted tomatoes, peppers, and celeriac today. Planted 1st planting of corn too. We had a good rain so the ground was nice and wet; perfect for transplanting.

Tomato transplant with newspaper collar

When transplanting it's very helpful to put some compost and water into the hole before putting the plant into it. Mixing kelp or liquid seaweed into the water first is even better. That helps the plant against transplant shock. When transplanting tomatoes and peppers it is best to wrap the stem with a collar of newspaper. The newspaper should be several pieces thick and several inches wide and not too tight around the stem. This will keep pesky cutworms from eating through the plant's stem. Keep some of the paper above the soil line and some of it below soil line. Cutworms are the larvae/caterpillars of a variety of night flying moths.

Yucky photo of a Cutworm near corn plant (photo from MN Extension)

Being that we are on the subject of soil critters let's take a moment to look at a specific critter that Charles Darwin referred to as a lowly critter, Lumbricus terrestris, aka earthworms, which are in the phylum Annelida. We all know that Darwin studied evolution but do you know that he also studied earthworms? You may ask yourself, "Why on Earth would a man as remarkable as Charles Darwin study something as lowly as earthworms?" The answer is simple; without earthworms we' wouldn't be here! What?! Yes, you read that right. If we didn't have earthworms we wouldn't be here because plants wouldn't grow. How can that be? How can our existence depend on something so ho-hum.

Here's the story of the earthworm. Very simply, Darwin realized what few others of his day did, that earthworms were of immense value to agriculture. Earthworms eat soil and debris that's in soil, poop it out adding nutrients to the soil and thus making the soil more fertile. They also tunnel their way through soil loosening the soil making it easier for roots to work their way though. Earthworms are like amazing little bulldozers. Moving soil from great depths, churning, adding nutrients, and just overall making the soil better for plants to grow. We want lots of earthworms in our soil!

Here's something written on Darwin's work with earthworms: "Only Darwin would go out there and start to do experiments and start to come up with a whole theory as to what earthworms did and why they were beneficial," says Anderson. "Everyone else just took them as part of life and didn't think hard like he did."

If you would like to read more about Charles Darwin and his work with earthworms visit: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=100627614

There is a way to increase the number of earthworms in your garden's soil and that is by adding compost and composted manure to your soil. Gardening without synthetic fertilizers, herbicides, pesticides will also help insure your garden soil of worms.

One final note on earthworms. You can raise them so that they eat your kitchen scraps and turn them into a wonderful type of compost known as Vermicompost. Vermiculture, the raising of earthworms, in particular Red Wiggler Earthworms produces some of the best compost that you can use in your soil. The compost is called "castings". Earthworm castings are the poop of the worms. Sounds yucky but they look like compost and are great compost.

To obtain Red Wigglers you can get a handful from a friend who raises them or you can purchase them online. Just do a Google search for Red Wigglers.

For information on Vermiculture there are lots of sites on the web. This one is fun to read and very informative:
http://www.wormcompostingtips.com/

A great book on Vermiculture: Worms Eat My Garbage.

Here's a fun fact that middle school age kids love about earthworms...they are hermaphrodites! That means that an organism, in this case the earthworm, is a male and a female! Wild huh!?

Worms crawl in, worms crawl out.....