Tons of earthworms. How do I keep them happy?

I recently moved into a house, the previous owner had completely neglected the yard and lawn. I am sure the lawn has not been fertilized in a long time and is covered with weeds. The small backyard is a mess too, with nothing going on, except patches of grass.
Last weekend I was in the yard digging out some weeds and noticed that every time I dug, there would be tons of earthworms. I have never seen so many of them in my previous home, there were almost 10-20 huge worms every square foot. I dug in a number of spots and every one of them had a massive number of earthworms.
The worms were located in the top inch or two of the soil, I am guessing this is because the previous owner did not apply any chemicals on the lawn, insecticides or fertilizers. The soil is still TX clay but seems a lot more richer and workable than in my previous home that was just a couple of miles from this house.
I obviously want to improve the lawn by fertilizing it and maybe using a weed and feed, at the same time I do not want to kill these earthworms. What do I do? Does using a weed and feed kill or drive the earthworms deeper? What are the things that I need to stay away from to keep the earthworms happy?

thanks,
xman

I would suggest staying away from chemical fertilizers, herbicides, or insecticides, such as weed and feed products, and use organic products. you even say yourself that you think there are so many worms because chemicals haven't been applied to the yard, so I think your gut is telling you to avoid the chemicals. there are plenty of organic fertilizers out now or you can use a topdressing of compost. for the weeds, you can pull them, start a regimen of applying corn gluten meal as a preemergent, or just concentrate on making the lawn as strong and full as you can to crowd out the weeds. check out the organic gardening forum, there's a lot of great advice there.

Wickedelph is right; you have been gifted with a wonderful situation. Most gardeners would kill for soil teeming with earthworms. That has to be a result of the lack of chemical perticides over the years.
Many nurseries now have organic fertilizers and programs--just ask. In addition, gardensalive.com features organin lawn products. Also, consider encouraging "good weeds" like white clover in your lawn.
Good luck!

I've been experimenting with corn gluten on one section of our lawn and I'm very impressed with the results. We have 3/4 of an acre and one area was really the pits. We only use organic materials, and I'm not ready to turn that to garden just yet, so thought we'd give it a try. It's working great, and we do use clover in the lawn, the bees love it and so does my garden. You are so lucky to have such wonderful turf.

I've heard that corn gluten might not supress weeds as originally thought, it just really makes the grass happy and it tends to overpower the weeds .... theoretically!

With the caveat that I have no love lost on turf whatsoever, I've also been told that sifted compost spread on the grass in fall is an excellent way to green up a lawn.

Me, I think it's a waste of good compost, lol - but if you have it available.... additionally it will help decrease the amount of watering needed. I'd be willing to bet it will aid in greening up a lawn without the additional growth that the nitrogen fertilizers (which are a) expensive and b) can cause a lot of problems with our water ) cause - which means you'll not have to mow as much, either. Always a bonus in the summer- Plano in summer on a mower doesn't sound like a good time to me!

This a series of excellent posts. I have nothing to add but ditto.

i have a little worm farm i keep for fishing, and i give them corn meal and coffee grinds

Agree with you Pagancat. I'm agast at the idea of using my compost for turf when I have so many other great things to grow. We intend to eventually turn the grass into flower beds. We decided we'd rather expend the energy on playing with the flowers. LOL

I've heard corn gluten is an excellent pre-emegent and a fertilizer. If the worms love it too, sounds like a great deal.

Well, I was pleasantly surprised at the weed supression we got using in our little "test" patch using the corn gluten. I think we may expand a bit in the spring.

Ditto.

Save the worms!

Absolutely, we need those little critters for great soil. And of course fishing (smile) Yes, I do bait my own hook. I don't do snakes, but I like worms.

One of the great things about gardening is learning how everything interacts with each other. My love of native plants got me into raising butterflies. Composting has gotten even me, the girliest girl on earth, to appreciate the worms. When I sift my compost I even pick up the worms (with gloved hands of course) and throw them into the finished compost or back in the cooking pile (I've got one of those three bin systems). Dad always told me worms were a sign of healthy soil. Sure enough, as I've improved (i.e. removed invasives, replaced with my bromeliad garden) the yard I've seen more worms. So I try to get along with them now.

The added bonus is having healthier soil and using less man-made products. I do believe in using less chemicals and such, but even if you don't care, consider this - why pay for something the worms can do for free? As far as keeping them happy - I don't think there's a secret to it. I've just concentrated on keeping the plants above ground healthy and happy, and the worms just seem to gravitate to those areas. And certainly, having a compost pile is like inviting them to a free buffet. They'll ALL show up! It sounds like you've got good soil and a lot of already happy worms. If it ain't broke, don't fix it. : )

mellielong,
Would you post a picture of your bromeliad garden, please? I have several bromeliads that are totally overgrown in pots and I want to divide them and strategically place them in the yard next Spring. I'd like to hear your experience with them. Any tips would be appreciated. Thanks, in advance.

Linda

Linda,
Sure, but you'll have to wait until tomorrow since it's dark now. I wish I didn't have to go to work everyday, but I must. Until tomorrow!
Melanie

Ok, I'm a little late but here it is. I'm going to move a lot of them around soon. I need to divide a lot of pups, and I have lots of pups just laying around that I need to do something with.

And a little closer in. I try to use the palmetto as a shield from the road and as kind of a "frame". Plus, I've attached some bromeliads to it.

Wow - that must have taken a lot work to put together! Thanks for the shot!

Thank you for sharing, that is just beautiful.

Thanks everyone! As gardeners I'm sure you know nothing is ever finished. Since it's finally cooled off here I'm going to use the great weather to do my big projects - like rearranging my bromeliads. I still have some pockets of invasive vines I need to dig out so it will be an opportunity to do that as well. That whole area used to be invasive Brazilian Pepper trees with skunk vine and air potato growing all through it. Since I put in the bromeliads I have all sorts of new friends - green anoles, frogs, and more earthworms!

Melanie

Mellielong,
Thanks for the pics and the info. II'm concentrating on my Sago palm nursery and growing EB veggies this Spring. Not gonna do a lot of flowers, but thought of a creative, budgetary ($$) way to use what I already have -- which is a huge bromeliad that needs dividing -- it 's been throwing out huge deep pink blooms for the last 2 summers, and I need to spread some color around the yard. Any tips on when the best time to divide this would be appreciated (actually, there's a bromeliad forum I checked last summer to do this). I just need to know the best timeframe for doing the dividing.

Let's see, you're in the same zone as me. Basically, you can do it anytime. I've never had any problems. As long as there's not a hurricane coming or flood or frost, you should be safe. The only thing to be careful of is not to move the pups into a wildly different climate right away. This is especially true if you move one into a lot more sunlight - you can burn them and then they look sad and brown. If they're going to be living in more sun, just acclimate them slowly. And of course, make sure they keep a little water in their center (I've heard they can go weeks without rain, depending on the size). Other than that, it's really hard to kill the things. : )

Melanie