Doesn't matter if your name is Caesar, Hussein, Trump or Clinton, sooner or later, your body will meet it's end with the worm. They will waste no time at all in chewing you up and passing you out as a rich casting. These little guys are the secret masters of the planet. Sooner or later, all organic matter will meet with the humble worm, of land or sea. These simple but wondrous creatures can move 15 tons of soil per acre, per year (about one quarter inch) through their digestive tracts, aerating and fertilizing the soil as they go. Worms come out of their burrows at night, hunting for organic matter that they draw back into the burrow and feed upon. Our soils would be a slick, putrid slime if it wasn't for worms. They become valuable cultivators in this feeding and burrowing process. Keeping a compost pile will increase the worm population in your garden.

Worms found in compost and manure heaps are red wigglers (Eisenia foetida) or brandlings as they are sometimes called, and the big, beige, dew-worm (Lumbricus rubellus). If you've ever wondered about the pale band or girdle around some worms, it's the secret to their sex lives. Worms are hermaphroditic and mature ones make a glandular girdle which becomes cross fertilized during breeding. The eggs develop in a cocoon formed by the girdle which is then shed into the soil. In a few weeks, two to twenty baby worms pop out of the cocoon.

The red wigglies are the best type for starting a worm box which can be kept all year, indoors and outdoors, for year round composting. Shredded kitchen waste is added to the bin which contains moistened bedding and redworms. The worms and micro-organisms will convert the entire contents into a super-rich compost.

There are a few things to know about setting up a worm box. I have posted the article "Composting with Red Wiggler Worms" on The Nature Frontier @thecentre.com and at "Amanda's Garden" on the TownTalk website www.angelfire.com/mn/powellriver/ . This is an excellent 4 page article by Mary Appelhof, a.k.a., WormWoman.com, which explains everything about setting up worm boxes.

To receive it by snail mail, send a SASE to "Worms", c/o TBS, Box 244, Van Anda, BC, V0N 3K0. by A. Martinson