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Worms or lack of

jackie-gardenerjackie-gardener Posts: 27
in Problem solving
I have filled a large raised bed with bags of ericaceous soil. It's planted up and is doing well. Whilst digging in the bed there are NO worms at all. The soil is matted and is a load of roots. How can i encourage worms or what can i top dress the bed with??.

Posts

  • punkdocpunkdoc Posts: 15,039
    If the soil is good, worms will come.
    How can you lie there and think of England
    When you don't even know who's in the team

    S.Yorkshire/Derbyshire border
  • jackie-gardenerjackie-gardener Posts: 27
    But it's been a few years.  What can I top dress it with?? X
  • DovefromaboveDovefromabove Posts: 88,147
    Farmyard manure. 😊 

    Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.





  • NollieNollie Posts: 7,529
    The matted roots, not from your new plants, presumably? Sounds as if you needed to dig the area over more thoroughly before planting. The new plants will do well to begin with but may struggle as they get bigger if the soil is compacted with old roots. However, to answer your question, worms want organic matter to break down. Homemade not-quite-rotted down compost, grass clippings, bark chippings - but not right up to the stems of new plants, leave a circle around the base free. Well-rotted, sterile bagged compost doesn’t give them much to work with.

    I agree with punkdoc, they will come. There was not a worm to be found when I first started digging over and improving my soil three years ago, but now I have a respectable population.
    Mountainous Northern Catalunya, Spain. Hot summers, cold winters.
  • K67K67 Posts: 2,506
    edited May 2019
    I see you had this problem as far back as 2015. Someone suggested manure then. Did you try that?
    Why  are you so keen to get worms?
    There is a thread on here called Earth Worms and someone said that N. America didn't have any until fairly recently.

  • DampGardenManDampGardenMan Posts: 1,054
    K67 said:
    There is a thread on here called Earth Worms and someone said that N. America didn't have any until fairly recently.

    Not true AFAIK. Earthworms in the northern parts of the US suffered during the last glaciation, but once the ice retreated earthworms wriggled back. What did happen was that European species were introduced by man (accidentally or otherwise) and spread around the US.
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