Referred to as \u201cnature\u2019s plow,\u201d they improve the structure of the soil by systematically tunneling their way through the earth.<\/p>\n

We\u2019re talking, of course, about earthworms. Their presence in your garden is a good thing\u2014a very good thing. As they wiggle their way back and forth, they aerate the soil and help beneficial microorganisms get the oxygen that they need to thrive.<\/p>\n

As they move, they are busily chomping their way through soil and organic matter which they process and then pass through their bodies in the form of nutrient-rich castings. These earthworm castings are better than any commercial fertilizer on the planet. They deliver nutrient-rich, worm-created compost right to the roots in a form that is readily available to hungry plants.<\/p>\n

Earthworm castings also support the structure of the soil itself by helping individual mineral particles clump together in larger pieces called \u201caggregates.\u201d These aggregates, or clumps, provide stability to the soil and prevent erosion by helping keep soil from being washed or blown away.<\/p>\n

What do our earthwork friends need from us?<\/em><\/p>\n

First, they need us to say away from synthetic and chemical fertilizers which can lead to overly saline conditions. Earthworms do not<\/em> like salt\u2014if there is too much salt in the soil, they will die. Instead, use an all-natural soil amendment such as Cascade Minerals Remineralizing Soil Booster<\/strong> which is rock dust made of finely milled volcanic basalt and nothing more. It is the earth\u2019s own natural way of building healthy soil.<\/p>\n

Second, earthworms need lots of nitrogen-rich, organic plant material to feed on and which they turn into castings. If you have a compost pile, add rock dust. By adding rock dust to your compost pile, you speed things along by giving the microbes that are responsible for the composting process another source of nutrition.<\/p>\n

Third, let earthworms do their jobs in peace. Rigorous over-tilling of the soil can decimate an entire earthworm population. More often than not, tilling is not even necessary (read \u201cTilling is One Chore You Might Be Able to Skip<\/a>\u201d).<\/p>\n

Earthworms…they are the organic gardener’s best friend!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Referred to as \u201cnature\u2019s plow,\u201d they improve the structure of the soil by systematically tunneling their way through the earth. We\u2019re talking, of course, about earthworms. Their presence in your garden is a good thing\u2014a very good thing. As they wiggle their way back and forth, they aerate the soil and help beneficial microorganisms get… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1780,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":""},"categories":[16,5],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/cascademinerals.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/Earthworm-in-Soil.jpg","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6YalT-dg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cascademinerals.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/822"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cascademinerals.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cascademinerals.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cascademinerals.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cascademinerals.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=822"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/cascademinerals.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/822\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1986,"href":"https:\/\/cascademinerals.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/822\/revisions\/1986"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cascademinerals.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1780"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cascademinerals.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=822"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cascademinerals.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=822"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cascademinerals.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=822"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}