Episode 007: Vermiculture; Composting with Earthworms

One sure sign of Spring in many parts of the world is the sight of a robin hopping around in the grass plucking earthworms out of the ground.  As the glaciers in North America receded at the end of the last ice age, the robins would not have found any earthworms to fill their bellies.  The extensive glacial coverage had driven most of North America’s native earthworms to extinction. 

Today, there are still some native earthworms in parts of the southern United States, but across the majority of the country, any earthworms that you find have been introduced.  Earthworms arrived as stowaways in potted plants and root balls brought over by Europeans beginning in the 1600s.  Now, it would be rare to find a single garden, lawn, or midden without a thriving population of earthworms. 

These worms are great for our gardens, but they have also spread into our fields, forests, and meadows.  It remains to be seen whether these worms will be good or bad for our environment.  Will the more rapid decomposition of organic matter caused by these little scavengers be a net positive or negative for the environment over time?  We don’t know.  Should they be treated as an invasive species wreaking havoc on their habitat, or a critical part of the environment that was absent for thousands of years and only recently reintroduced?  We don’t know.  One thing for certain is that they are here to stay. 

In the garden though, they are clearly beneficial.  In this episode of the podcast, we start two indoor compost bins for the purpose of propagating earthworms that we will then be able to transplant into our garden beds.  Specifically, we are using the red wriggler variety of earthworms.  If they do well, we may add in some of the giant “night crawlers” as well.  We also talk a bit about future plans for the garden, raised beds, insectaries, greenhouses, and vineyard. 

The book that we talked about in this episode is called “Northern Winework,” by Tom Plocher and Bob Parke.