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There's Always Room for Worms

© Erica Myers-Russo

The problem with the central California coast is that it's too nice. So nice, in fact , that everyone wants to live there and the resultant overpopulation is infamous. I lived there for a sweet but short six months, and I rented from the worst landlords imaginable. They were mean and petty and nosy and greedy - every month brought a new and arbitrary fee. They could do this with impunity because the housing market is so tight that prospective tenants actually bring "renters' resumes" with them and bidding wars are common.

So I took a certain perverse - albeit impotent - pleasure in knowing that I was pulling one over on my landlords. You see, my apartment was so tiny that I had to give away half of my belongings just to move there, but I still had room to compost. Vermicompost, that is. I am absolutely certain that my landlords would have assessed a pet deposit and extra utilities had they known about my worms, so I was pleased to know they were there under my sink, silently turning my kitchen scraps into valuable castings.

Castings, by the way, are worm poop. Hardly glamorous, but incredibly beneficial. Earthworm castings are amazing. Here's just a few of they're proven benefits (courtesy of Yelm Earthworm & Castings Farm):

• As little as 5% castings by volume in a planting mixture significantly increases plant growth. Castings added to seed-starting mix increase germination by up to 70%.
• Worm-worked soil contains high levels of nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium (the "N-P-K" necessary for plant growth) and moisture.
• Worm castings increase plants' diseases- and pest-resistance.
• Worms make many nutrients (including N, P, K, as well as calcium) more bio-available to the plants while simultaneously rendering harmful substances such as heavy metals less available.
• Worm compost adds increased beneficial microbial activity to the soil while reducing the presence of salmonella.
• Worms improve the physical structure of the soil as well, increasing surface area, aeration, porosity, and stability. Worm-worked soil resists compaction and run-off better than inert soil.

The fundamental truth is that worms both indicate and improve soil health. Good soil is living soil, and earthworms thrive where soil is rich in organic matter, pH stable, and untreated with toxic chemicals. At the same time, worms are absolutely essential to restoring soil which has been damaged by excavation, erosion, compaction, fertilizers or pesticides. The benefits of worms to agriculture highlight a critical problem with conventional food production: plants extract what they need from the soil. To continue to grow plants on that soil, you have to replenish what has been taken. Modern commercial agriculture tries to circumvent this by relying on synthetic fertilizers and pesticides but those chemicals fail to replace vital organic matter and eliminate symbiotic soil life.

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