Worms in winter
A word about earthworms – wiggly.
There are worms in most all non-glacial, non-ice-covered areas of Earth. Even in deserts. How did they get everywhere? Armadillos are not found in all parts of the world, but they spread far outside their homeland by scurrying around, getting lost, sending out scouts to explore new lands up ahead, learning new languages… did worms do that? How would they cross the ocean?
Or, remember when all the continents on Earth as one unit rose out of the water? Did the new soil, still learning to be soil (but with great foresight), create self-sufficient wiggly tunnel diggers because somebody had to keep the soil aerated? Thank you, earthworms. And then the continents drifted apart, but adventurous earthworms through ingenuity and perseverance had already invented tunneling and had quietly migrated far and wide… or something like that.
Earthworms, ragworms and leeches comprise more than 22,000 species of the phylum Annelida. Leeches often live in water and survive by sucking out the energy of other sentient beings which make them perfectly analogous to certain politicians. Ragworms also prefer to live in water. They have segmented bodies like their phylum mates but with a pair of filament-like feet on each segment. Birds eat them, people fishing use them as bait, and in parts of Asia they are added to scrambled eggs. Not me.
Earthworms have never been part of my breakfast, and I prefer it that way. They are diligent, hard-working creatures who shun the spotlight as they work miracles for our soil. Earthworms do not have a brain but instead have two nerves running the length of their bodies that allow them to sense light and temperature variations. They breathe through the skin. They do not have eyes, but they live underground and it’s dark, so what would be the point. I wonder if gophers and snakes benefit from having eyes when they crawl through their tunnels.
Another word about earthworms – useful and industrious.
Earthworms play a critical role in creating a healthy soil environment. They might venture into the bottom of a pile of leaves, but mostly they burrow through the soil. If your garden has healthy, fertile, friable soil, you see them all the time. Hey! – maybe there’s a connection!
Red wigglers (a kind of earthworm) live in the top few inches of soil and spend their days eating organic matter and leaving behind “compost” for the soil. They’re voracious. In fact, gardeners with too much to do already will nevertheless start worm casting bins in which they engage the services of happy red wigglers to produce a rich soil additive just for being fed vegetable scraps and apple cores (no Velveeta, please). They are generally less than four inches long and might have a yellow tinge to their tail end.
Nightcrawlers are the other worms in your garden. In my garden, I encounter them near the surface, but they often live deeper in the soil and are famous for their tunnels, even vertical ones, which allow air and water to penetrate deeper into the soil. That’s a good thing.
Both kinds hang out deeper when it’s cold.
Earthworm digestion is like ours. Worm food – decomposing plant parts, dirt, stuff – passes through the worm mouth and then down the worm throat into the sophisticated worm machinery which further decomposes what passes through and leaves it all behind to our benefit. It is not just anecdotes but results from science people studies that proclaim plants produce better when grown in soil with a happy, healthy earthworm population.
Earthworms prosper in garden beds with plenty organic matter added regularly. Mulch eventually decomposes enough to mix with the soil beneath which makes for great feng shui for earthworms. Tunneling is easier in soil rich in organic matter, so worms have more time for chautauquas and such.
‘Tis the season for giving, so, gardeners, throw down some mulch to keep your hard-working tunnel crew cozy, fed and smiling.