How can I encourage earthworms to move into my garden?

Question

I read that there should be at least 5-10 earthworms in every spadeful of dirt you shovel in your garden. When I checked in my garden, it was more like 2-3, so I feel like something's wrong.

The soil itself seems pretty well-conditioned. It's got more sand in it, so it breathes better than the usual clay soil found in my area. It holds moisture pretty well too.

I mixed in some decomposed cow manure into the soil so far, but have not amended it otherwise. I have a compost bin full of half-rotten compost, but it might not be ready until a while longer (say, 3-6 months).

There's a bait shop down the road where I could buy worms, but I'd rather try to figure a way to create the right conditions for them to live in. Healthy soil, I'm told, is full of worms.

Answer 1

Start a compost bin. Earthworms love it. There are some
commerical kits available that will help you grow earthworms
in your own home/garage/basement using compost.

If you start a compost bin outside, make sure that it is
surrounded by wire and hard for animals to ge into. You can
also buy additives for your bin, but I find dumping a stale
beer on it now and them to help with the decomposition.

After a few month, depending on weather, moisture and sunlight, the earthworm population should increase and
you can remove some from the bin. From there take your compost and mix it well will your garden.
Rototill it (if you hurt the earthworms - well they regenerate
from the pieces, I do believe) if you like. Regardless, the
compost bin is your earthworm nursery to your vegetable
or flower beds.

Answer 2

If you get 2 to 3 worms on every spadeful of dirt in your garden, that is more than enough if you ask me. Worms are smart little creatures too, they don't want to wait for your shovel, once they felt vibrations they go down deep. If they're there that's a good indication already that you have a good soil. Just put your tree leaves or grass clippings in your garden every fall and mixed it with the soil in spring is good enough to feed and attract worms. Plus, if you want them in your garden don't use rototiller. This will chop them into pieces and probably will threatened them away. Happy gardening.

Answer 3

We feed them, by putting some table scraps in the garden. Just dig a shallow hole and put iit in and cover it back up. I would be carefull about buying worms at the bait shop. There are cases where the worms sold at the shops are not native to the area and have taken over with not always good results.

Answer 4

just remember worms make other creatures interested in your yard- Moles for one-- but I have found that layering newspaper down under the top soil makes a good worm attractant- it will help with the sandy soil as well---and it keeps the weeds out---don't use the shiny paper just the plain newspaper--

Answer 5

Here's an "earth-friendly" idea from Mother Earth Magazine. Sink wine bottles into their tunnels...open end up. Fill the bottles to different levels with water. The wind blowing across the open ends causes harmonic sounds that scare away the moles.

Answer 6

Used coffee grounds and used tea leaves are great.