When I poke in my Berkshire garden this summer I found a host of angleworm . That , it turn out , is high-risk .
I was elicit to involve earthworms as the nurseryman ’s best friend . It ’s true , these benevolent beast ( or so I see them then ) aerate the soil with their tunnel and eat constitutive litter from the airfoil of the soil , hold it back underground to eliminate it as “ castings ” that are full of nutrient for works roots .
My mother , a devoted gardener and my first horticultural instructor , always impressed on me the good character that earthworms trifle in the garden . Later , when I had fine-tune college and was studying gardening at the New York Botanical Garden , my favourable view of these creatures was reinforce by a book compose by no less an authority than Charles Darwin : The Formation of Vegetable Mould through the Action of Worms , with Observations on their Habits . In this book , Darwin cited computation that the universe of earthworms in the average garden numbered some 53,767 per Accho and calculated from his own observations that , depending on the quality of the soil , worms deposit as much as 18.2 tons of castings on the airfoil per Accho per yr . Darwin regarded this as marvelously good , which in some preferences it is . But in the northern United States these untiring creatures are a catastrophe from an ecological perspective .
“Crazy snake worm” — note prominent white “clitellum” or ring
For earthworms are not indigenous to the northerly United State ; they were wiped out by the glaciers of the last ice age . And although there are many species of earthworms that are aboriginal to the southern parts of our land , most of the 1 we find up here are creation from Europe or Asia . aboriginal or foreign , though , wiggler can have striking effects in change the quality of the ground , consuming and decomposing much of its organic message .
This transformation has an contrary effect on aboriginal vegetation . Especially harmful are some of the non - native worm , which are enthusiastic and effective consumers of constitutive litter on the forest storey . This layer of fallen leaves and sprig acts as a mulch and a reservoir of nutrients for surface rooted trees , ferns and wildflowers . eliminate it can drastically affect the survival of these specie . Nor are the natives the only plant at endangerment . I live of one nurseryman in Connecticut whose woodland perennial garden was overrun by the large , hyper - fighting Asiatic earthworms popularly sleep together as “ jumping worms ” or “ unhinged snake worm ” ( Amynthas agrestis ) . In a issue of months the shred oak tree leave of absence with which this gardener had mulch her beds disappeared , and the soil was so over - aerated that plant roots dry out out . She no longer mulch – that just move a worm universe explosion — and sporadically applies a teatime seed repast - free-base plant food , Early Bird Natural Organic Fertilizer , that is toxic to earthworms . In this elbow room she keeps the population of startle worms in check , but she will never eradicate them entirely .
“ Crazy Snake River worm ” — note prominent white “ clitellum ” or peal
It ’s soft to introduce earthworms unintentionally to your garden , as I have learned . The ancestors of mine — average nightcrawlers ( Lumbricus terrestris ) — likely arrived in some truckload of compost or the molder manure I bestow in from a horse farm . My ally in Connecticut suspects that the Asian worms go far in her garden in the ground around the root word of a plant shared by another nurseryman or container - produce nursery stock . Often , though , worms are designedly introduce . Left - overs from a fishing misstep are dumped into the wood or garden , or worms escape from tubs or beds in which they have been cultivated to help compost kitchen and garden dust .
Hopefully , the dusty winter in my zone 5 garden will help to slow up the earthworms spread , and I intend to spread the tea leaf seed repast . I wish my woods as they are – worm - free and full of aboriginal wild flower .
