by Steve Smith

Washington Certified Horticulturist

Now that it is May we should all be busy working in the garden, cleaning up the last remnants of Mega Storm 2008 and thinking very seriously about what we are going to plant in our gardens for this year.

Whether we are considering vegetables, fruit trees, new shrubs, perennials, bulbs or annuals, the one major thought we always need to keep in mind is the soil, because if we keep our soils healthy then most of the time our plants we be healthy too. And the way to keep our soils healthy is to maintain a high level of biological activity.

Healthy soils have three components. They are a combination of good structure and texture, something we refer to as the physical properties of soil. They are fertile, which is a chemical quality. And they are alive, which is the biological component. It is the biological component that we often neglect. This is where my “Bag of Magic” comes into play. I am referring to Worm Castings.

Worm Castings are one of Nature’s perfect products. They are of course nothing more than worm poop to be perfectly blunt. But they do magnificent things in our soils. They are one of the many kinds of soil amendments that we as gardeners can add to our soils to improve them. I think the best way to think of worm castings is to consider them as concentrated compost. If you were to take all the beneficial qualities of compost and reduce them down to a concentrated product you would have worm castings.

Earth worms eat soil. That seems like a simple enough statement. But what it actually means is that earth worms eat all the things that make up what we think of as soil and that includes the mineral and the organic components. As this “soil” moves through the digestive tract of a worm it is broken down and concentrated so that when it comes out the other end it is decomposed into a state that is soluble and easily absorbed by plant roots. And it is absolutely chocked-full of microbes. While we can’t see these microbes with the naked eye, they are nevertheless essential to healthy soils. They play all sorts of roles in the overall grand scheme of soil ecology and the more we do to encourage them the better our soils and consequently our plants become.

Fortunately for gardeners, there are businesses that raise worms for the sole purpose of producing worm castings. You can buy a small bag of worm castings for around $7.00 or a larger one cubic foot bag for about $13. One large bag could very easily last you all season. All you have to do is add a handful to the hole or container every time you plant something and the results will be magical. Plants will grow faster, bloom earlier, have better color and generally be healthier. Now you can’t beat that, can you?

What we need to remember is that through the construction process soils are damaged and it is the microorganisms that work to repair them. As we apply synthetic fertilizers and pesticides we also destroy our soils and once again it is these tiny microscopic critters that put things back in balance.

Investing in a bag of worm poop this spring may just end up being the smartest thing you have ever done. While you still need to keep using those organic fertilizers and composts like you always have, the worm castings will increase the efficacy of them. They will all work together better than any one of them will by themselves.

If you find that this worm stuff really turns you on then you can go to the next level and invest about $90 in a worm composting system that uses worms to compost kitchen scraps. It is an odorless system that will produce both dry casting you can work into the soil and a liquid leachate that you can actually dilute and spray onto the foliage.

Finally, if you remember the brewed compost tea craze just a couple of years ago you might recall that the tea was brewed from nothing more than worm castings. With a simple aquarium pump and some tubing you can make your very own compost tea too that will be super-concentrated with microorganisms that you can use to foliar feed plants or apply to the soil.

So as you can see, worm castings have several applications for the home gardener. If you have never tried them before then perhaps this is the spring to give them a try. I think you will be more than pleased with the results you experience.

Steve Smith is owner of Sunnyside Nursery in Marysville. He can be reached at 425-334-2002 or online at info@sunnysidenursery.net.