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No worms

Pauline 7Pauline 7 Posts: 2,246
in The potting shed
I have been in my house for7 years now and have built my garden from bare scrappy 'grass' at the back and bare trodden down earth at the front. Every year I have added MPC and have dug it in. I read on here somewhere ( If my memory serves me right)  that if you just spread it on the worms would mix it in over winter, so one year I just left it on the top of the beds and it was still sitting there staring at me in the spring. Thinking back I have NEVER seen a worm in this garden....front or back, Is this normal? and, if not, what can I do to encourage them?
West Yorkshire
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  • B3B3 Posts: 27,505
    That sounds strange. How deep have you dug? What surrounds your garden?
    In London. Keen but lazy.
  • Pauline 7Pauline 7 Posts: 2,246
    I have gone down a good foot and a half, more in places. Our house is on an estate surrounded by other gardens. The surrounding gardens are 'kept tidy' rather than gardened...if you know what I mean.
    West Yorkshire
  • madpenguinmadpenguin Posts: 2,543
    I had a scrappy 7 year old lawn removed from the front of my new build house some years ago and I remember the chap who took it up said there were no worms at all.
    The whole garden didn't have many but I do get a few now.
    The whole place is on heavy clay which sets like concrete at times so expect it would be quite difficult to move through if you were a worm!!
    “Every day is ordinary, until it isn't.” - Bernard Cornwell-Death of Kings
  • LiriodendronLiriodendron Posts: 8,328
    I don't think worms are very fond of acid soil.  That's what I had in my previous garden, in W.Yorks, @Pauline 7, and very few worms... new garden, alkaline to neutral, neglected heavy soil, has hundreds.  Is your soil acid?
    Since 2019 I've lived in east Clare, in the west of Ireland.
  • Pauline 7Pauline 7 Posts: 2,246
    It's not heavy clay it was fairly easy to dig through and i have  never actually tested the acidity of the soil as everything I have planted has grown well.  I think I should buy a tester when things get back to normal.. 
    I think something must be happening down there somewhere, because when I first starting on the garden I had to sieve all the soil in my borders as there was so much c**p in there, and now there are stones back again.
    West Yorkshire
  • PosyPosy Posts: 3,601
    Have you tried using well rotted manure? Do you have a compost heap? I don't know where worms come from (!) but they always seem to appear in muck.
  • GemmaJFGemmaJF Posts: 2,286
    We have plenty of worms, but I have never known them to drag down compost or manure, well not in a noticeable way where it is not there in the spring.

    'Missing' worms is getting to be more of a thing in the UK though. I'm not sure if they even fully known the answers as to why yet.
  • GemmaJFGemmaJF Posts: 2,286
    Posy said:
    Have you tried using well rotted manure? Do you have a compost heap? I don't know where worms come from (!) but they always seem to appear in muck.
    I'm not a worm expert, but I know a man who is! They worms found in muck and compost are a different type to those found in soil. (I have a friend who's Dad breeds worms for a living).
  • PosyPosy Posts: 3,601
    What a useful friend!  Perhaps a gift from a friend's garden is indicated. I have clay and millions of worms but it is alkaline clay.
  • nick615nick615 Posts: 1,487
    Essentially, Pauline, soil is created by worms.  During the hours of darkness they emerge to feed on any decomposing vegetable material, animal droppings etc.  If you find any worm casts, they'll be the end product.  If you've got any hard surfaces, paths, driveways etc., it's a good idea to go out early on a morning after a night's rain.  Because worms can travel in wet areas (normally dew) they get stranded on hard wet surfaces when morning comes and you may be surprised at how many you find.  I always make sure they're returned to a more friendly area.
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