Earthworm Habitat

As mentioned in an earlier blog, the lack of livestock deprives the gardener of manure. Inspired by this situation, I decided to make an earthworm habitat. A tenant left an old plastic washtub with holes drilled in it at a vacant rental house. This was turned into an earthworm habitat. It was buried in a shady spot in the garden that was not much good for planting. This spot is under the fig trees.

Finished compost was used as the medium to fill the tub. Some worms were captured from the compost bins and the garden to populate the “farm”. A little plain corn meal was sprinkled on the top to feed the little critters and the whole thing was covered with an old trashcan lid. Then there was an amazing discovery.

The potting soil was getting really low yesterday so some finished compost was screened to make potting soil. Virtually every forkful of compost had 3 to 5 earthworms. I hope this means that the compost that was put into the habitat originally was also full of earthworms. How nice would it be to reach in and grab a handful of medium and have it wiggle?



David Segrest is an International REALTOR in Charlotte, NC. His email is david@segrestrealty.com , His webpage is http://www.segrestrealty.com , and his international real estate blog is http://dointernationalrealestate.blogspot.com/