Ever heard the ole saying, "If you have alot of earthworms in your garden, you have good soil"? Well it's true. Earthworms are a great indicator of the structure of your soil. Just one earthworm can swallow and process between 20 - 200 tons of soil per acre. That's alot of dirt!
Here's a little project you can do yourself to determine how your soil adds up.
Dig a 1 foot square hole in your garden about 6 inches deep, and place the soil into a shallow tray. (this is a fun project for the kids too!)
Next count the number of earthworms in the tray of soil.
1 earthworm means your garden soil needs work.
5 to 9 means it's almost there, but still needs more compost.
10 or more means happy soil life.
Use this above scale to asses the amount of organic matter in your garden soil, earthworms are great indicators to soil life.
Jo.