Congratulations, worms are great!

Thank you! I know it probably seems a little silly, but I just can't help myself. My fervent hope is that those wormies are breaking up the clay soil beneath my new bed...

Yes, vermicompost! Worm castings are great! I just bought a pound of worms to make a worm bin.

I don't know that I'd be brave enough to make a worm bin, tey157...I think I'll stick with putting out dinner for the worms and letting them come to it. :-)

Yeah the first time I dug into my lasagna bed earlier this year I saw worms and that spot hasn't seen a significant amount of worms in a long time. Everytime I come across worms in other parts of the yard I toss them into the lasagna bed. Never can have enough.

We just had a few days of heavy rain and our driveway slopes down towards the house. Earthworms - hundreds of them - were cascading with the water down the driveway. My wife thinks I'm crazy (or it just confirmed her suspicions) but I went out and saved them and tossed them in the lasagna beds.

Ha ha cdsetx8, I'd be out there doing the same thing! With gloves on, of course (I admire worms from afar).

Not silly at all Far. We all have earthworms as pets here at the S&C Forum. :O)

You reminded me of the first day I realized that what I was doing to our soil was bringing in those lovely aerating and ferilizing creatures!! They are going to LOVE the coffee!

Yes Tiffy, they sort of are like pets, aren't they?

I picked up more coffee grounds yesterday, and the coffee shop babe was equally horrified and intrigued that I was going to dump the grounds she was giving me into my garden. When I told her the worms love them, she got this very curious look on her face and asked, "Have you noticed if they like different varieties? You know, like dark roast versus decaf?" I wanted so badly to say, well, I'll be sure to ask them, but I didn't. :-)

I just now finished eating some lasagna. I didn't see any worms. I hope it didn't have worms. If it did, I assume I now have worms.

Tom

Congrats !!!! I want worms too !!! I had no idea they loved coffee grounds.I'll have to see if the new coffee shop in town will save them for me.

Congratulation! Now you will never want to till or even dig roughly in your garden else you might harm your new dear little earthworm friends, at least that is how it is with me.

ICK! Worms in your garden?!?!?! Puh-leeze! I'm trying to eat my tofu!!

Hey, dchall, composting worms do NOT like tofu. Honest. I tried giving some old stuff. They ran away.

I just called our local Starbucks and the gal said they put out bags of used coffee grounds all the day long. Just go by and pick them up anytime she said. Thanks for the idea, farfaraway. I just lifted my compost bin so I could start anew this spring. Black Gold!!! I've always had a compost bin, but now I will start a lasagna bed for the first time. Tell me, do you plant right on top of it? Is this what a lasagna bed means? Layers of composting material?

Worms are my best friend and worst enemy.

They continually aerate and improve my soil. My lawn, shrubs and trees show their appreciation.

They evade my driveway with a heavy rain and I too feel compeled to save them from drowning, our cars, kids, robins, etc.

They attract the moles from my nearby woods and exhibit interesting (destructive) tunneling as they move through my yard feasting on worms. Most tunnels are exposed in the subsequent frost heaves to deal with in spring. I have given my cats direct orders to kill on site, but feel that a castor oil spray may be in order.

My lawn is a daily feeding ground for at least 50 fat robins. For some reason, only my lawn is attractive to them (could be the use of chemicals vs. organics, who knows?) At times I feel like I'm living that Hitchcock movie "the birds".

All in all a great thing, who wouldn't want thousands of helpers working their soil 24/7/365. The unwanted pests and annoyances are apart of the greater order and an interesting consequence. I constantly look for ways to increase their population and make them happier.

Congratulations!

Talk about envious! I've lived on this acre of sand for two years plowing all the leaves and compost and other organic stuff into it I can get my hands on and have seen 2 worms in 2 years.

Hang in there shagaia. I am finally, now, just this year, seeing increased numbers of worm populations after working on my gray, concrete soil for 5 years.

Someone said loam wasn't built in a day. Boy, they weren't kidding!

I have a designated worm spot in an out of the way area of my backyard lasagne garden, of 7 beds. I do not attempt confining the worns, but make sure there is worm food of all kinds in that spot. I daily add about 50 worms to each of my beds. Today, I pulled back random spots of the straw top layer of each bed. Without fail each spot was squirming with mostly red wrigglers. I also add kitchen leavings, and leaves under the straw ongoing, am looking forward to amazingly productive beds this coming spring summer and fall. Very exciting.

My ex-husband was horrified when we first merged households and gardens. I didn’t blame him really; he had a pristine, weedfree, sterile garden, half upon which I heaped tons of chicken manure, cow manure, hay, compost, leaves and seaweed, all topped with newspaper, more seaweed and more hay. It’s a great system if you commit to it forever and ever, as long as ye both shall live.

Anyway, he was pretty astonished—-not the right word—-by all my newspaper and hay in his garden until he realized what easy worm pickings were to be had in my half and was placated. He held a fishing derby annually on our little trout pond, and he would send the neighborhood children into my half of the garden, where they could just lift the sheets of newspaper and kife my worms for their hooks.

LOL!! I had to do a double take on this posting :-) I also have the Cooking forum on my list of favored forums (in addition to Soils, Compost and Mulch) so when this popped up on the current page listing of topics, I immediately thought someone was posting about issues with invertebrates in their Saturday night Italian casserole dinner!! Much relieved that is not the case!

I seldom see any worms here in winter. And it's not like the ground freezes to any extent at all and they need to tunnel deeply for a warm hibernation. But it is pretty darn wet so maybe they are just hunkered down in a drier layer of soil. But then, I have not exactly gone looking for them at this time of year either..........too wet to be doing much of anything outside in the garden, even peering under a layer of rotting leaves.

"We are the wormmmmmmmmms, out on the sidewalllllk" Weird AL Yankovitch?????

Hello farfaraway, I've been lasagna gardening for many years despite the controversy and I also have many worms. I just created an idea book with many of my gardening ideas but I'm not sure how to share it. Here is one idea:. I found a House Rabbit Society near me where can I pick up bags of organic Timothy bedding, soaked with urine and droppings. I either compost it or use for one of the bottom layers. Even if some seeds sprout they are easy to pull. They are all over the U.S. and the bags I take for my garden do not go to a landfill. I also love composting in place so I don't have to move it. I'm old and lazy. I compost in winter right where I want the compost - in my garden. I make my composter look better with an artistic element on top. Best of luck with your gardening. Kathy