- Worms provide many benefits to plants in a vegetable garden.Ryan McVay/Photodisc/Getty Images
In the United States, the most common earthworms are in the Lumbricidae family. These are found in lawns and gardens throughout much of the country. Wherever they make their homes, worms benefit the soil by making tunnels to reach food, creating paths for air and water to reach down to the roots of the plants in the area. Their castings -- excretions -- also benefit plants by making nutrients more readily available in the soil. - Garden worms (Aporrectodea tuberculata) are common in the upper layers of dirt, especially in the Midwest. They are commonly called garden worms, but this worm may also simply be known as the earthworm. They can be found burrowing through the tilled soil of vegetable gardens and fields, and help to make the soil richer by bringing minerals up to the surface from deeper in the ground as well as carrying organic matter down into the soil. Their semi-horizontal burrows help to trap pollutants and minimize chemical runoff into streams and lakes.
- The night crawler (L. terrestris) takes the work of the garden worm a bit further, tunneling much deeper into the soil and providing for a better exchange of minerals 6 feet or more into the soil with organic matter from the surface. They live in open land, particularly lawns and large gardens, and are rarely seen in the daytime. They can often be found at night, especially if a sprinkler is set to water the garden in the evening. The vegetables in the garden benefit from the activity of the worms, not only their tunnels but also the large amount of decaying matter they remove from the surface of the soil and the castings they produce. They are slow to reproduce compared to other types of worms, but they are still quite common in most areas where there are lawns or gardens.
- Red wigglers (Lumbricus rubellus) are a type of red worm that is generally smaller and more active than the garden worm or the night crawler. This worm is often put to work composting kitchen and garden waste for people, but it can also do very well when place into a garden. The main thing red wigglers need to survive in a vegetable garden is a layer of compost or mulch on top of the bare soil, as they are top feeders and need to be able to come up out of the ground to eat. The worms work the compost into the soil, helping to enhance the soil by aerating it and bringing nutrients to where they are needed.
- Advertisement -
- Advertisement -
