build little worm condos and offer free first month's rent. they should come.

lol

sorry, i'm a newbie like you - just learning from trial and error and learning a lot from this composting forum.

good luck - hope you get worms!

Earthworms need organic matter, that is the food they consume. Little or no organic matter and there will be no worms. Get organic matter into the soil and the worms will come, in time.

Sounds like you have the typical heavy red clay soil that is found in much of Virginia. If it was used to graze cattle, it may be too compacted to be amenable to worms.

BTW much of North America lacks native earthworms and many, if not most, of the earthworms we find in our soil were introduced from Europe. (In fact there is growing evidence that in many natural ecosystems these introduced earthworms are actually a bad thing.) Hard to believe but I suppose it's possible that they just never made it into the land you're talking about. And if they're not there already, they will not spontaneously generate; they need to be physically introduced, or to migrate on their own from neighboring areas where they are already present--which could take a while depending on how far away the nearest existing populations are. But the bottom line is that lack of earthworms is not necessarily a bad sign or an indication of unhealthy soil.

The only places I have not seen earthworms are the northern, virgin forests where they have never been, but since most places we live and work soil have had earthworms there will be earthworm eggs inthe soil that will hatch when soil conditions become suitable for earthworms to live in. There is no need to "import" earthworms to most places where we live today.

What I have been doing the last couple years, is go to the local town or city where the sanitation workers are, and ask about where they dump the leaves from the streets. I did a few loads with my pickup truck. (composted leaves)Also, ask any landscapers or lawn maintenance for leaves. I have one almost across the road from me vacuuming some lawns. So I suggested he dump a bunch of loads near my garden. No problem, as he would just dump it in the nearby woods otherwise. Worms love those leaves, and will be there by Spring.

Yes, leaves, lots of leaves! Or most any organic matter really. You could make an area next to your compost bin where you moisten the ground, sprinkle some corn meal, lay down several inches of moist leaves and see if the worms have found their playground come spring. Worms also seem to like wet corrugated cardboard. If there are any in the area, they will likely find an area that you keep moist (as damp as a wrung out sponge, not soggy wet) and has worm food (leaves, cardobard, kitchen scraps.)

Good luck!

Oh, and leaving the grass on the field is good.

Here is a link that might be useful: My Garden

I agree that leaf mulch brings worms like nothing else.

However, take heart. If you apply organic matter and keep the soil reasonably moist the worms come. I mulch my beds with leaves in fall, and in spring they are literally crawling with worms. My clay tends to be pretty wet in spring too, and the worms are happy as can be. They always become less apparent in the drier summer months.

By late last summer, the drought with a foot rainfall deficit had definitely taken it's toll. My worms were gone, probably deep in the soil in search of moisture. A network of huge tunnels remained, but worms in the top 10 inches or so were few and far between. If you did your soil examination 6 months ago when you moved in, in the midst of that drought, that might have been a big reason for for lack of worms. I suggest you take another close look in spring and see if it looks better. Hopefully you have had some drought relief since fall?

Add whatever organic matter you have access to: leaves, grass clippings, coffee grounds, compost, whatever you can get.

Karen

Thank you to everyone who replied. I will do as you have suggested and put all manner of organic material that I can come up with on and into the clay soil. I love that idea of sprinkling corn meal and mulching a spot beside the compost heap. That sounds like a nice "experiment". There is a place where the landscapers dumped a pile of shredded mulch back in July. We weren't able to get to it because of the high grass. Now that the field has been mowed we can see that it is only 2/3 or half of what it was back then. We're going to investigate. Thank you all.

TCLynx:

I just returned from the My Garden link you sent. You certainly were modest in saying that it might be useful. It's amazing you were able to grow such a diversity of plants in such a short time and with such simple materials. I loved your idea about growing crops in cardboard boxes. The amount of ground that you were able to put into production was fantastic.

I just returned from the bookstore (spending holiday giftcards) and almost bought "The Earth Moved: On the Remarkable Achievements of the Earth Worm" by Amy Stewart. It looked like interesting reading. Instead I bought "Teaming With Microbes", as had been recommended on this forum. So many books, so little money!

Iris: They are both great books I think. My non-gardening friend saw my copy of The Earth Moved, and actually asked to borrow it. She's reading it now and said even she found it fascinating. And, as I said, she does no gardening.

Karen

Worms lay eggs in the soil. Most earthworms are not native in a lot of places in North America, especially the northern latitudes and coniferous forests. Virginia should have lots of worms. The nightcrawlers and the red worms that are the most common in gardens are both European species. But, they go deep when it gets cold or dry, and hibernate. They also don't take disturbance from construction and brush hogging very well.

you don't need to buy worms. They'll get there on their own - wet leaf piles often have worms in them, as do nursery plants in pots. Just adding plants and organic matter will add worms and/or worm eggs.

Teaming with Microbes is awesome.

And if you want to figure out what a worm cocoon looks like (little yellow egg-shaped doohickeys), I recommend this video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sl9gY_SqyxM

Interesting video. Thanks for the link.

Karen