I rent these fields from Our John’s uncle. And when I first took them over they had been cropped in corn or beans or wheat for at least fifty or sixty years. Since the 70’s chemicals have taken over as the main source of herbicides, fungicides, pesticides ( the suffix cide means to kill so you get the picture) even synthetic fertilisers (often made from oil) that ultimately draw goodness out of the soil, not add to the soil, rendered this ground inert.
Not one living thing, certainly not any earthworms could be found and the ground actually smelt like the underside of a road – you know that smell when they scrape the tarmac off a road — when there are roadworks in town?
The rain water pooled, did not drain properly and the soil was silty.
From October to May the ag land is quite bare to the elements, awaiting its new crop. You have seen our surrounding fields – you will never find an earthworm out there. None of this is natural. To heal land into rich pasture is a long, long process. Most of it conducted by nature.
Imagine my delight – after seven years of growing pastures in this soil – I have found numerous earth worms. And in large numbers too. The soil has begun to heal.
Some interesting facts about earthworms.
And it is all thanks to this stuff. Manure. (Though this is destined for the compost heaps down the back.)
Here is a patch of pasture that shows the amazing fertilising power of a dollop of manure.
See how rich the surroundings are. And if I were to dig down under there I would find many precious earthworms. This is quite the best news.
Thank you, cows.
And pigs of course. All my pigs are vegetarian so their manure is also easily digested into the soil.
You all know how worms work so I won’t go into it but you can imagine my delight at finally seeing multiple worms in the soil. Worms mean this work of decomposition is happening at a rapid rate now.
To jump from manure to carrots and parsnips is a wild one. But I love mashed parsnips and carrots. It is the best way to use up the old root vegetables while the new ones grow. The manure I use in the gardens has to be composted for a year first. Though my Dad swears that if you plant a tomato into a cow pat you will get the best fruit ever!
Actually he said his mother used to keep a tin bucket and shovel by the gate in the old days and if a horse in town was seen to poop in the street the Mums would send their kids out to scoop up the steaming piles and add it to the compost down the back by the vegetable garden.
Worms in the soil means the natural underground cycle of composting organic matter is now intact and working. Long live the worms!!
I hope you have a lovely day.
The Kitchen's Garden 
70 responses to “The re-turn of the worm”
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My grandfather said the same about running out into the street to collect horse manure. I think of that daily, as there are police stables nearby and plenty of dung on the streets. If I had a garden I’d definitely be out with a bucket, though I believe that horse manure must be well rotted or it will kill plants. Great news about the worms 🙂
Yes, horse manure needs lime and a year! I used to have it in NZ for my vege garden – it takes much longer to break down though I am not sure why.. c
I wonder if it’s because they only have 1 stomach for digesting, so it hasn’t been broken down as much as a cow’s food? At least I think a horse only has one stomach, I’m possibly showing my animal ignorance here! Have you ever thought of having a horse to help on the Farmy, C? But I suppose it would eat too much hay.
Yes, a horse has only one stomach and they are not as efficient at digesting their food. I’m sure a good draft horse would be helpful, except it would require getting the kind of farm implements for horse/oxen drawn work and the horse would also require the extra hay each winter. There are more small farms now that are using horses for the plowing, cultivating and harvesting of their acreage, the manure dropped in the fields is an added benefit. It would be more than possible to train one of the bobbies to yoke and the job of pulling farm implements but it would be time comsuming and would remove one or two from meat production.
We had masses of earthworms at the house before we had to leave. It was always wonderful to dig into the soil and see them. Many a warm, rainy, spring evening would see many on the surface conjugating (breeding). There is only concrete, asphalt and gravel where I’m living at present, so no plants except in containers and no earthworms.
I SO hope you can find somewhere with a garden soon – but at least summer is coming – no more ice
Actually if you pile the horse manure out of the sun and turn it regularly it breaks down relatively quickly to a rich brown earthy smelling soil. Considering one full size horse produces about 8 tons of manure in a year it’s a good thing! I think if your pile includes bedding – straw or wood shavings, it might take a little longer. It’s done wonders for my garden soil.
EIGHT TONS! I will tell John that – he might let me get a horse after all.
earthworms are wonderful healers, long live the earthworms on the farmy 🙂 Laura
Wonderful! When the soil heals and is healthy, the crops are – and then we are.
I am as giddy as a schoolgirl when I see big, fat earthwards here on our little acreage – and I am mostly flowerers and herbs. I can imagine your joy.
Isn’t nature wonderful, long live the earthworms. 😊
What a bunch of gardeners we all came from! My Grandpa believed sheep manure was the secret to his tomato harvest. He added water to make “soup” which he spread over the beds. Thank goodness he did this in very early spring because you didn’t dare open a window for a number of days following the “treatment”.
Yes! Compost Tea! We have a big batch of that going here. Our tea is water, manure and worm castings, aerated with a pump for two days, and it’s going on the plants in the garden today! We will continue with the “treatment” throughout the growing season. Great stuff!
Haha! Yes, when I was in grad school I lived near great farm areas. Even with the car windows tightly shut, I couldn’t drive fast enough or hold my breath long enough to get from my place out into ‘the county’ through the [beautiful to LOOK at] fields that had been freshly sprayed with green manure in the season. So worth the results, but almost intolerable for a short time. 😉 Then again, no worse than the stench of industrial smog used to get consistently before EPA regs. The cycles of modern life, eh!
Ha! My dad used to call that “the smell of money”. 🙂
YES! I still do this and I love my compost tea! Best stuff around!
Long live worms and seeing them make me want to go cat fishing! OH how I loved to fish in my prior decades. And yes, I cleaned and ate it too until the waters in the lakes here became too loaded with mercury. Now I just dream of fishing.
Mashed parsnips and carrots – I may have to try that. What’s the ratio you like best?
Aboout half and half i suppose – mashed roughly – more smashed than mashed I suppose.. with lots of butter of course..c
Making me ravenous here!
Of course lots of butter! I should needle point that on a pillow!
More Butter More Better. It is my family motto!!
I understand your excitement. The soil I started with here for our gardens was almost dead. Three years and lots of compost later, I have worms in my soil now too. I was so happy to see them. 🙂
I have, in the past, wondered about you and worm keeping. My sister did for a few years a long time ago and the refuse from the worms can be grown in directly… doesn’t require it to be composted first. And her gardens were amazing. But then I decided you likely don’t have time to maintain them, what with all your other critters to look after.
And I have no clue what the underside of a road smells like, but I can imagine it’s not pleasant… lol
But my question is… if there hasn’t been a trace of earthworms for nigh on 50 years, then where does the first one in your field come from? ….Regardless, I join the chorus in “Long live the earthworm!” ~ Mame 🙂
I did have a worm farm for years but now the kitchen scraps are needed for the pigs and chickens and milking cows and so on – the worm farm lost that battle.. c
Congratulations on finding earth worms..how exciting….Its good to know that nature does have a way of recovering.
talk about manure..when we had Daisy Donkey and her friend Maya a few years back none of the manure or straw went to waste. My grandmother said that horse poo should be put into a bucket with water and left for a few weeks ..then you strain it off and then add more water so that you can water your plants in the garden….it didn't half pong!
Sent: Tuesday, March 28, 2017 at 2:49 PM
We used to do this with seaweed. Maybe I will try it with cow manure? They do this on the dairy farms in NZ. Collect it , mix it with water and spray it on the resting fields..c
Very good news that your soil is being restored. We have composted for years and I find lots of smaller red worms in the bins.
My father always said chicken manure was the best for his tomatoes. Do you have an opinion on this?
Very high in nitrogen and can burn the roots so do not put chicken manure close to the stem but after it has broken down it is fantastic stuff in the garden.
Yeah!! Good job for bringing back healthy soil to your part of the world!
Us too Celi, we had nary a worm, or a bee when we moved in and started gardening in the mountains. Not because of the nastiness of industrial cropping, as in your case, but because we had only rocks to farm on. We had to buy and grow our soil, and now we have worms! It is very, very exciting!!! We also never saw a bee to help in pollination at first either, so got two hives. The bee operation has been a struggle, that’s for sure, as they have so many disastrous issues to deal with. Just lost one of our two hives a couple of days ago, and still don’t know what happened. It was the weaker hive, but had made it through the winter and looked alive and well, and then they were dead. All honey was gone and no brood, and the small amount of bees were dead on the frames. So weird! We are still trying to guess what happened! Beekeeping is a difficult endeavor these days!
was it a cold night? If they break and it goes back below 40 – 50 they can die of cold. Though with no honey left – were you feeding them sugar water? How miserable. I am sad for you. I found spring my worst period for bee disasters – as you will remember. Hopefully hive number two does ok. c
Yes, we had a three to four night cold snap where the temps when back to below freezing at night. But we left them lots of honey for the winter, and fed them sugar water all winter right up until now. Maybe it was the cold snap that did it. That’s what Jack is thinking too.
That is exactly what killed my last bunch – and they had survived a miserable winter – only to die in the spring after they broke their heating ball. So sad and you can’t fix that. That is up to the queen.
I don’t know manure, but I love working with healthy soil in the spring, putting in plants and seeds. Kneeling down in the dirt holding the aromatic earth and feeling its rich texture, is good for the soul. Hooray earthworms!
I love earthworms! They are such harbingers of goodness. When I was just starting my very first garden, I was young and by myself and so poor and the garden soil so terrible. I talked the old stockmen down at the Fat Stock Show into allowing me to collect the manure from the show cattle and haul it home to my garden. I was there for hours sholving manure. Those old guys chuckled at me driving away with (what seemed like) 100’s of pounds of manure in garbage bags in the backseat of my volkswagon. I had wonderful vegetables and the next year the old guys helped me shovle!
That is quite the sweetest story – I remember a friend of mine going quite giddy with excitement when another friend of ours came in with a huge hemp sack filled with sheep droppings collected from under her shearing shed. Those old men of yours – .. c
Oh I’m sure I was a pathetic sight. Can’t you just see it~ poor city girl gathering poo for her poor pathetic garden. HA! I probably just shamed them into helping me! But it was great fun.