Worm beds!
It’s mid growing season so let’s talk gardening today.
Worms will find a natural garden no matter what, but they’ll flock to a well prepared composted garden. They absolutely love the nasty, soggy wet rotten straw underneath a Ruth Stout Garden (so do potatoes, yams and winter squash). In my raised beds, I like to use worm beds. Yep, provides a nice place to dump kitchen scraps (no meats or citrus please).
You can usually get the food grade plastic buckets with those snap tight lids in the baking department at your friendly grocery. Drill ⅜ holes all around below the dirt level. Drill holes in the bottom too. This lets the worms come and go as they please. Drill ¼ holes in the top to let rain in. Sink the beds into the ground in the middle of your raised bed. Start by putting shredding soggy newspaper in ⅓ of the container and begin to add kitchen scraps. Check the worm buckets regularly, as worms are veracious eaters.
It’s like a worm hotel. They pop in for a garbage meal then head back out to poop while they cultivate the soil. Worm casting by far are the best natural fertilizer. You can buy a starter pack of red wrigglers and night crawlers from your local bait store. Or just pick up the night crawlers in your lawn using a flashlight at night. Be quick. Those are quick little devils. The kids love hunting night crawlers. Just dump them in and snap the top on because bears like garbage. I had a papa bear rip a worm bed up out of the ground and slap it around all over the yard. The top held! And it’s nice to just trowel up a mess O’ worms from the worm bed to take the grandkids fishing over’thu lake.