This little garden creature is a great helper when it comes to spreading nutrients throughout your garden – it also helps improve soil structure and reduces contaminants
Most of us aren’t massive fans of bugs – but BBC presenter and expert gardener Alan Titchmarsh recommends keeping this one insect around. It might just help your plants grow even healthier.
In a YouTube video posted to Gardening With Alan Titchmarsh, Alan recommended using a mulch, or soil improver, to give plants a boost. But he had one extra tip. He said: “The great thing about this is it means when worms take this down into the soil from that surface mulch they’re improving your soil at the same time.”
He continued: “They’re adding nutrients as well as this organic feed that you’ve got here.” This is because worms burrow channels deep into the soil, creating intricate networks.
READ MORE: Gardeners urged to sow just 2 vegetables outdoors and keep the rest inside
When they eat organic matter, they excrete it in these channels, effectively recycling nutrients throughout the soil. This means that your organic matter doesn’t just stay on the surface.
You might spot little mounds on the top of your lawn or around your garden. This is actually worm excrement, which is an end product of their vital recycling process.
This is why it’s important to lay down compost or soil enhancers. These are typically packed with vital nutrients for plants, like nitrogen and phosphorus.
Worms do more than just spread nutrients, however. They also help improve soil structure. This is because they mix and loosen the soil as they burrow into it, which leaves space for water to drain away.
In fact, according to research by the European Union, soils without earthworms are 90% less effective at soaking up water. This can lead to problems like flooding and soil erosion.
Despite often being labelled as dirty, worms actually help clean soil too. This is because they spread microorganisms through the earth, which help break down contaminants.
If you don’t have a soil enhancer or compost on hand to help your garden worms improve your garden, there are plenty of natural alternatives. Better still, many come from food waste.
Banana peels make an excellent fertiliser, as they are rich in potassium. You can either grind them up or use them to infuse water, creating a banana tea for plants.
You can even use your old pet hair. It sounds mad, but pet hair actually contains plenty of magnesium and nitrogen, which break down slowly, giving plants a gradual release of nutrients.