Benefits Of Compost Worms For Your Garden

Wrestling with bad soil in your garden? Compost worms are an effective and organic solution that will give you great soil for planting anything from flowers to vegetables. Read on to know why these red critters are a great addition to your garden.

Top Benefits of Compost Worms

Healthy soil

Compost worms produce castings or worm poop that are excellent sources of nutrients for plants, allowing you to grow healthy vegetables without the need for external fertilizers.

Aerated soil

The movement of worms through the soil breaks it down so that it becomes spongy. This gives soil its healthy texture which is ideal for proper soil aeration that benefits the good bacteria in the soil. This is beneficial especially if your garden has clay soil that is prone to hardening and poor drainage.

Toxin breakdown

The compost that worms produce can lock up toxic metals in the soil, making them less available to plants. If you suspect that your garden soil may contain trace amounts of dangerous metals and minerals, compost worms can help clean up these toxins for healthier soil and plants.

Healthy plants

Healthy soil produces healthy plants. Compost worms boost the amount of organic matter that serves as fertilizer. They increase the number of nutrients and good bacteria in the soil. Some studies also suggest that soil processed by compost worms has fewer pests which can help prevent plant disease and pest attacks.

Can you use any type of worm in your garden?

You might think that compost worms are the same as garden worms but they’re not. Garden worms are the kind you can find naturally in your garden especially under bushes or boulders. Compost worms are the red wiggler worms which are worms that you can find among decaying, organic waste like rotting vegetation, manure, and existing compost.

Red wiggler worm or compost worms produce richer worm casting than those that are kept on plain soil. Compost worms thrive on compost and hardly on plain garden soil, which means that you run the risk of killing your compost worms by just spreading them out all over your garden, where they can’t find too much organic waste to munch on. Instead, create composting ditches around the garden that you can fill with a mix of vegetable waste, organic bedding, and compost so that the worms can thrive and produce even more healthy compost for the garden.

Compost worms are a great addition to your garden under the right circumstances. Make sure they have ample organic matter to eat and place them on specific areas where you can develop healthy and nutrient-rich compost soil that you can slowly add to the rest of your garden.