Earthworms - The Prize Won for Creation Gardening Methods

Fungi can trap and kill nematodes, dissolving their
compounds to swap for the root's carbon credits.

Living the Fungal Jungle
All gardeners missed the real message of soil microbes until recently, when investigations of fungi, protozoa, and bacteria revealed the crucial role they play in delivering usable chemicals to plant roots. Fungi are decomposing champions that create tubes (hyphae) to dissolve organic matter on one end and deliver nutrition to roots (sometimes several plants) on the other end.

The long hyphae of mycorrhizal fungi help plants obtain nutrients and water. In return, the fungus receives exudates from the plant. These all-important root-fungi partnerships are known as mycorrhizae. (The fungi are mycorrhizal fungi; mycorrhiza refers to the relationship.) Somewhere between 90 and 96 percent of all plants enter into mycorrhizae. These are not trivial associations. Fungi produce powerful acids and enzymes that break down organic material, freeing tied-up nutrients, many of which are then moved to the host plant root. The plant, in turn, expends valuable energy and uses limited resources to make and deliver exudates to support the association.

Lowenfels, Jeff;   (2013-05-07). Teaming with Nutrients: The Organic Gardener’s Guide to Optimizing Plant Nutrition (Kindle Locations 2165-2170). Timber Press. Kindle Edition. 

Basics of the Earthworm
Creation (organic) gardeners, aimed at having the most earthworms per shovel. Some say that one earthworm per shovel is the standard, when digging. I find them tumbling out like acrobats at a circus, each time I dig, often on my hands and knees with a trowel.

Earthworms share this with other assets of God's Creation. They do not like:

• Pesticides.
• Herbicides.
• Fungicides.

Diversity of Life - more earthworm biology.

Darwin studied worms for 40 years,  but missed their importance. He saw earth-movers, but we know earthworms are  earth-moving soil improvers.

Many people are familiar with dew worms, which dig deep and do not cotton to earthworm farms. The main product of earthworm farms is the red wiggler, which is very active in the top foot of soil, where almost all roots - even tree roots - feed. I add red wigglers to every place where we live.

The earthworm is all muscle, with bristles to move it through soil in harmony with the muscle contractions. Its hard nose makes it easier to penetrate tough soil and has been known to burrow through asphalt.

Earthworms eat little pebbles that stay in the gizzard to grind soil. One benefit of earthworms is the creation of fine soil.

As many gardeners know, most plants like sweet soil, but there are some that like acid soil. Earthworms are unique in having calciferous glands that produce calcite from the calcium found in the soil. This sweetens the soil, which helps plant growth. Worms like sweet soil and make it sweeter.
This sweet (non-acid) soil makes chemical exchanges work better. Most plants love sweet soil.

Earthworms are shredders and mixers. One author called them "cows that graze on bacteria." In doing so they move bacteria around and concentrate beneficial organisms in their castings (manure). They multiply usable nitrogen and other compounds in their castings, and they excrete nitrogen compounds from their kidneys.

Worms can deposit a staggering 10 to 15 tons of castings per acre on the surface annually. This almost unbelievable number is clearly significant to gardeners: the ability to increase the availability of nutrients without carting in and adding tons of fertilizer is about as close to alchemy as one can get.

Lewis, Wayne; Lowenfels, Jeff; (2010-09-10). Teaming with Microbes: The Organic Gardener's Guide to the Soil Food Web, Revised Edition (Kindle Locations 1407-1410). Timber Press. Kindle Edition. 

Earthworms move in when compost is done, so moving compost around distributes them and their egg capsules while providing food on the spot for their progeny. Darkness, moisture, and food will make them even more prone to reproduce.

Earthworms also love mulch. They cannot tolerate sunlight, so new worm purchases will dig down into the soil at once. Under mulch - or in compost - they will feed on bacteria and burrow through rotting organic matter. They like dead trees, logs on the ground, sawdust, shredded wood mulch, and newspaper.

Earthworms benefit soil, compost, and mulch by their constant tunneling, which aerates its surroundings and allows water to penetrate more deeply rather than run off. Earthworms work against soil compaction.

For example, worms pull mulch material into underground dens for shredding; the results are nutrient-rich worm castings, more worms, worm tunnels and dens, better water retention, and improved aeration. All manner of micro- and macro-arthropods are able to live in mulches, speeding decay, adding to the soil’s organic content, and attracting other members of the soil food web. 

Lewis, Wayne;  Lowenfels, Jeff;  (2010-09-10). Teaming with Microbes: The Organic Gardener's Guide to the Soil Food Web, Revised Edition (Kindle Locations 2077-2080). Timber Press. Kindle Edition. 

An earthworm will move its body-weight in soil every day, so its constant work will improve the soil in many ways, On one acre of pasture, earthworms will easily move one ton of soil per day. Why did when they do this so well? My mulched areas are always light, airy, and easy to dig.

The ancient Egyptians realized that earthworms did most of the work in working the soil after each of the annual floods of the Nile River. Thus - harming an earthworm was a capital offense - as it should be today.

Additional details about gardening with earthworms can be found in The Wormhaven Gardening Book - free PDF.

God turns newspapers and wood mulch into roses.

Bindweed, Crab Grass, Nitrogen, and Mulch - Jackson Mulch Works Wonders with Weeds

Liebig began the chemical experiments with soil and crops
that led to inorganic fertilizers.

Bindweed and Crab Grass are prodigal providers of seed. Bindweed is the evil cousin of Morning Glory, so it loves to hide in bushes and wrap itself around plants. Pulling it out can simply add more seeds to the collection in the soil.

Crab Grass came over as a grain and escaped with great success, like dandelion and day lilies.

Weed seeds survive in the soil as long as 40 years, so simply turning over the soil can expose them to sunlight and prompt them to grow.

The key to weed reduction is not herbicides, which are especially effective on bushes and flowers, but to use Jackson Mulch. I did not invent Jackson Mulch, but emulating the Roman Empire, adopted the technology to my growing and needy rose gardens.

Jackson Mulch is simply a complete layer of newspapers, weighed down by shredded wood mulch, leaves, or compost. I favor wood mulch for keeping the newspapers in place. Leaves are not reliable in keeping down the newspaper, if the wind picks up and dries them out. Sticks and branches can also be used. Compost is great because it combines the ingredients and soil creatures, even earthworm egg capsules. that the soil requires.

Newspaper style mulch works because the cellulose will break down in time, unlike plastics and "landscaper's cloth." The first effect of the newspaper layer is to block the sun. If you think that does not kill everything below, leave a big sack of seed or mulch on the lawn for a week or two.

The vitality of the weed is rendered null and void with no sunshine to sprout the seeds. In fact, the mass of weeds will quickly turn into the best compost, including their roots below. The greens decompose very fast and the roots leave spaces in the soil when they die. All this feeds the soil creatures, which simply love darkness, damp, and rot.

The sun baked weeds turn into dark enclosed compost, especially because the moisture previously dried up by sun and wind is held down below to feed the process of decomposition.

The gardening industry wants people to believe that inorganic fertilizers help plants, when the chemicals only do their job when available to the plant roots. Most of the inorganic fertilizer will pass down into the water table, as proven by one rose grower who had terrible results with fertilizer while his friends were having great results with organics.

The clue is simple - soluble, that is, available chemicals. The atmosphere is 80% nitrogen, so why would plants lack nitrogen?

The lightning makes nitrogen compounds in the rain that give
seed for the sower and bread for the eater.
'Isaiah 55

Classroom - Nitrogen
But nitrogen compounds, such as ammonium and nitrates, do mix with water. If those nitrogen compounds exist in the air, they can mix with water and come down with rainwater. The question then is, how can stable nitrogen molecules convert to nitrogen compounds? The answer is that it takes energy. For example, lightning provides enough energy to split nitrogen molecules and stimulate the formation of nitrates -- molecules with nitrogen and oxygen molecules. Bacteria decomposing animal manure and internal combustion engines are also sources of energy that produce nitrogen compounds that can end up in the atmosphere.

Green, leafy plant material is high in nitrogen compounds, so smothering the weeds with mulch will give those compounds to the good plants. We mulched large areas of lawn months in advance, to have a garden area ready - without tilling or back-breaking digging. We also mulched after the roses were planted, so the lawn decomposed around the plants to feed them as they grew.

Having mulch around the entire fence perimeter meant that we had plenty of easy digging to plant 30 asparagus, 16 roses, beans, peas, and other plants.

Long-term, the soil creatures are moving bags of usable nitrogen. I have neglected the earthworm, which we take for granted, in favor of the soil microbes. Next is a post on the earthworm's role.

Crabgrass can be mowed or mulched.
Pre-emergent toxins can be used, but do not let
children play in the grass.

Book of Concord - Not My Meme But I Like the Message