Best winter ground cover for wormless soil?

Do you need worms to process soil toppings such as leaves or hay, or will they break down with simple rotting?

I rented a plot in a community garden, which consists of imported topsoil layered over impenetrable clay. I did not encounter a single worm all summer. They have dumped a pile of more dirt we can wheelbarrow over to our plots and spread over them, but what would be the best protective covering to add? Is it too late to plant a cover crop (zone 6)? Chopped leaves? Mulch? I do not have access to any homemade compost.

If this has been addressed before please point me in the direction of that post, because Search is disabled.

Thanks.

Nisi, I have clay soil, and when I started gardening in this soil I didn't find any worms either, I started to add organic matter, leaves, grass clippings, shredded paper, started composting and worms started to show up in the soil.
Do a internet search on Clay soil and you will find lots of info, here is a link to start you off. http://organicgardening.about.com/od/soil/a/improveclaysoil.htm
If you can start collecting your kitchen scraps and dumping them maybe once a week in holes you dig in your plot and cover up the holes with the pile of dirt they dumped you will be on your way to composting.
If you really want to get into it make friends with the produce manager at your local grocery store and arrange to pick up trimmings and vegs/fruit they will be throwing away, also used coffee grounds are good.
Hope this gives you some ideas.

If you want to boost the number of worms in your soil, try adding worm castings. Often, the bag contains worm eggs mixed in with the "black gold."

http://www.google.com/products?q=worm+castings&hl=en&show=dd

You can also search online for vendors selling earthworm eggs, although they can be difficult to find. Gardener's Supply sells them, but they're not in stock at the moment. I once bought Vermipods (earthworm eggs inside protective clay balls), but they're hard to find too.

I'm pretty sure you do have a few worms in your soil, even if you haven't seen any. Once you add a bunch of organic material to the soil the worms will find it and their population will increase. Shredded newspapers (minus the glossy pages) are tasty to worms, as is shredded non-glossy office paper and junk mail.

Spent coffee grounds are like "wormnip", to coin a term. Starbucks shops give theirs away, as do many local coffee shops. If your local shop doesn't give their used grounds away, ask the manager if they'd mind collecting them in a big bucket for you. The paper filters can go right in the bucket too. Worms will eat it all.

More on coffee grounds and worms here:

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&safe=off&q=site%3Adavesgarden.com%2Fcommunity%2Fforums+grounds+worms&btnG=Search

[Fixed the link. Oops.]

This message was edited Dec 3, 2008 11:30 AM

This message was edited Dec 3, 2008 5:22 PM

Very good advice from everybody.
Leaves are excellent as a much, also pine needles and spoiled hay don't blow away like leaves might, but really any organic matter will do.
Here is how I solved my problem
http://www.texasstar.org/index.php?pg=soil-improvement

Thank you all for your help. There was a reported sighting of two worms in another plot, so you're right--they are there. Just have to encourage them!

Worms love horse manure. Cover your plot with a layer of horse manure and you will have worms. Or if you need to compost the manure, just put it in a big pile and wet it down. It will warm up and the worms will come as if to a party. I don't know where they come from but worms seem always to find a moist pile of manure.
Have any friends with horses? That's where I get mine. They usually have all you want even if they only have 1 horse.

Thanks for all the good tips! I have a bag full of papers to be shredded, now I can put them to a much better use!

Darla

Yes, shredded paper mixes nicely in a compost pile. Go for it. I bet you will have oodles of worms just a few days after starting this process and then more each day thereafter until they have eaten all the food or until there is no water. Just provide food and water and you will have an incredible supply of worms.

When I first started my garden there were absolutely no worms, the soil is red clay and was hard as a rock. A few showed up a couple of summers after we added manure (composted) from a nursery, and a lot of compost. The next winter I covered the beds with horse manure that I got from a neighbor and topped that off with straw. WOW ! I now have many many worms in every shovel of dirt that I turn over. I have 4 compost bins that I work all year and each spring I add it to the beds also. My soil is black now and wonderful. I think I enjoy building the soil as much as I do growing things, so rewarding.
Jacquie

I agree with you Jacquie, building up a soil is a very rewarding experience and a lot of fun.
Josephine.

I have to chime in my agreement as well. Organic matter is the cure all for poor soil and lack of worms. The worms eat the organic matter. I have to agree that I have found horse manure to be the best as well, though lots of kinds of organic matter work -- fall leaves, for example.
Building the soil is the way one gets great gardening results -- with flowers or fruits or whatever.

I got a truck load of composted horse manure the other day. I need to get the bed prepared so I can spread it out. I have a couple of stumps and 2 bushes I want to get rid of first. Then I'm going back for another truck load or two

You won't regret adding horse manure. It does carry a lot of weeds if you don't compost it first, though. But the plants will be happy. Since you are in Florida, you could probably pile all the manure up, wet it down good and it would compost on the spot in a very short time -- then spread it on your garden. The bigger the pile the hotter the compost, the more seeds you kill. Just a suggestion.

I'm thinking of layering it with some shredded leaves and paper with the manure on top. I took 6 big bags of leaves that my father in law put out for pick up. I have nothing but sand in my yard so it needs lots of TLC

After you mix in the leaves, coffe grounds, kitchen scraps or whatever organic matter you can get your hands on, try mixing 1 cup of blackstrap molasses to 2 gallons of water and sprinkling that over your bed. It's not essential, but it is like candy to the worms and helps to feed the soil microbes, as well as adding some trace minerals.

Hmmmm...Blackstrap molasses...Must go to the store tomorrow. Also need garlic for NYD hoppin john

Checking my blackeyed pea supplies now.......

The only molasses i can find is the Grandma's brand, all natural, unsulphured. Is that the same as Blackstrap? And the only size I've seen is the 12 oz jar, can you get it larger?

davis- I don't know whether you have access to a feed store (as in livestock), or something like "Tractor Supply", but they carry larger containers of molasses - I don't know if a warehouse store like Sam's or Costco might also. Samantha

Blackstrap molasses on Amazon: http://tinyurl.com/d4x27a

Thanks for the link PuddlePirate. Now I can get going on my compost pile. i've been working on the compost pile for over a year & just can't seem to get it right. I've got some rotted leaves too.

On the compost pile, did I read where its a waste to add anything in the winter? Because I'm still adding to it & tossing the pile when we have weather warm enough to thaw it out. I just added about 20 lbs of worm poop and a 50 lb bag of cow manure. Is that going to be beneficial?

Samantha, I went to my local feed & seed, but they don't carry the black strap or alfalfa pellets, which I'm also looking for. They have alfalfa blocks but that's it. I understand you can use the alfalfa pellets as a top dressing on plants, in the compost pile or in the hole you dig for roses.

Just wondering if anyone has advice on that. thanks.

No need to put worm poop in the compost. Just put it right on your plants. It is a finished product.
On alfalfa pellets: try a different feed store or a pet store. I can get alfalfa pellets at 2 feed stores and 1 pet store -- they are used to feed rabbits. Alfalfa pellets are good for your plants and good for your compost.
The cow manure should be good. As far as turning in the winter, it helps, but compost doesn't do much in cold weather, probably not absolutely necessary to turn it in the winter -- but no harm -- gets air in there for bacteria to do their work.

pajaritomt - I am looking for alfalfa meal - none of the feed stores here carry it, so I may have to settle for pellets! Good luck! Samantha

thanks for the summary pajaritomt. I'll hold on to the rest of my worm castings till spring for my plants & I'll continue to look for alfalfa pellets.

I have a 50 lb. bag of wheat bran, I was planning to use for my bokashi. Turns out I don't do bokashi very well either, ok to put it on the compost pile?

Oh Oh! What happened with the Bokashi?

I don't think I had enough stuff to put into the bucket, no matter how much I added the bokashi mixture. It went bad. I ended up digging holes & burying it, after being advised those batches were not good. I need to go back & find the thread to remind myself about it.

I am sure the wheat bran would do great in the compost. As for the worm castings, you could even put them on your plants now and let the weather slowly wash them down to the plant roots which are just beginning to grow now.

Gardener's Supply Company is selling earthworm eggs again. The description says you'll get 3000-6000 worms for your twenty bucks. Seems like a steep price to me, especially since I see no mention of what species of worm they're selling.

Here's the link anyway:

http://www.gardeners.com/Earthworm-Eggs/20708,02-217,default,cp.html

I have never understood the need to buy earthworms. Just make a pile of manure or leaves and keep it moist for a while and lots of worms will come. I know people who have bought earthworms and worm poo, but seems to me a waste of money -- unless you just don't have enough space to make your own pile for them.

20 bucks for worms? shhesh, I'd never.
I think all the above advise is great. I will incorporate some of the ideas for myself even though some of my worms are as big as small snakes. lol

Usually its the red composting worms that folks purchase for worm composting setups. These will consume the food faster that ordinary earthworms. The redworms need a lot of fresh material. They are often called manure worms because they tend to congregate in manure piles and dissipate in the regular soil. I wouldn't pay for regular earthworms as they will arrive on their own. If you are setting up a vermicomposting system, then you may want to buy some to start out.