HAS THE WORM TURNED?

[TriciaM]

(1) Armed with the invaluable advice I received from this forum I set up my worm farm and all went well until I came across this gem on page 108 of The Owner-Built Homestead by B and K Kern [highly recommended by the mastro of permaculture, Bill Mollison]
Quote: The earthworm has no mechanism for creating exceptional plant food, for capturing solar energy, or for fixing nitrogen from the air. Earthworm movement creates insignificant soil aeration, and there is no unusual amount of richness to be gleaned from its castings. The leafy diet of the earthworm is especially low in mineral content, and to the extent that the earthworm feeds on the organic content of humus, it burns energy and reduces soil fertility. Unquote.
Crash went my dream of helping to rejuvenate the damaged soil on my property (over a period of years) using natural casting mixture!

(2) Update on the dreaded pussy.
Reply from the Australian Herb society:
Dear Tricia, the cat problem could be helped by a cat trap and catching them – this certainly scares the life out of them. Rue is a herb they hate and a spray with a chilli mixture on the ground will send them running.

[d_donahoo]

tricia -

the earthworm stuff - from my understanding is pretty much correct - but once again - you need to think of where you are starting from and what you hope to achieve.

worm castings are often used as an excellent seed raising mix. at a previous house, we lay worm castings out on our garden bed to sow seeds directly into.

and, depending on the current condition of your soil it will help. if it is all clay soil, worm castings will add a nice richness. the fact is you need to breakdown your organic matter some how and worm farming is an excellent way to do it. plus you'd imagine - the high nutrient content of the stuff you throw into your farm - some of that will remain.

it looks like they are purely looking at earthworms in a very isolated way.

i question the aeration comment and suggest that, like all things, you read widely and just cause a book comes highly recommended - you can pick and choose what you think is worthwhile information.

so stick with the worm farm, but also set a couple of composts going and set up a trench composting system for winter.

go and find as much chook poo and cow poo as you can and dig it into the soil and let it start to rot.

you'll get there in no time.

cheers

[GeoffandNadiaLawton]

Hi Tricia
worm farms are stocked with compost worms not earth worms which live in the soil and will eat the manure of the compost worm. The compost worms can eat their own weight every day in organic matter and double their population in 40 days. Their manure (castings) is a extremely good soil conditioner with very high beneficial bacterial counts.
Cheers Geoff

[Mont]

Tricia, you've identified the biggest frustration of the learning permaculturist - contradictory information! I'd love a quid for every time a respected author says the opposite to another respected one, or adds further information which changes the conclusions you reached from the first source. If you like to fix info in your memory and move on it's annoying to have to get the rubber out and start again. The upside is that through investigating further you end up with a better understanding - if you have the time! I wish you the minimum amount of gnashing of teeth over it.

Mont

[TriciaM]

Thanks for the reassurence and extra info!
I'm trying hard to replenish the patch of damaged environment I live on. I think my worms are the red wriggler type as they are reddish long, skinny, and very active.

This forum and books are my only source of learning as there are no permaculture workshops in this `neck' of the woods.

Trouble is B. Mollison's recommended reading lists are very out of date. Is there a more modern work that covers the info in:
Creatively Confronting the Energy Crisis by Deborah White?
Or `The Permaculture Barden' by G. Bell
Or `Urban Permaculture' by D Watkins.

By the way - I have stopped the rain-initiated soil erosion at the front of my property by making mini swales and packing mulch and grass runners into the concaves. It's really great!
I never would have imagined such a thing if I hadn't read the article in this forum.

Best wishes
TriciaM

[Mont]

Tricia, there's another useful forum run by the Uni of NSW's ecoliving centre (at Randwick). The site on the web for previous postings is:
lists.cat.org.au/cgi-bin/mailman/private/ecoliving-permaculture/

A couple of books you might find useful:
The Permaculture Home Garden by Linda Woodrow (1996) [Penguin Books] - she's based on the NSW/Qld border.
and
Organic Gardening (6th edition) by Peter Bennett (2001), New Holland Publishers. He's based in Adelaide.

Mont

[Chook Nut]

yeah don't give up on those worms

David Holmgren has just released a new book called "Principles & Pathways Beyond Sustainability" ....although this book may be a bit political more than practical... there are exerts on his website

his website is http://www.holmgren.com.au ..... i will be ordering my copy soon.....

i am getting the Seed Savers book first as a i do a lot of growing from seed....

good luck

[d_donahoo]

and while we are on recommendations.

i find anything by Jackie French still inspiring - not scientific, but full of knowledge that many may have thought to be lost.

also - i'm addicted to Ted Trainer's website at the moment:

he writes awesome stuff about livign self sustainably and how to move towards a low energy future.

http://www.arts.unsw.edu.au/tsw/

(ps - also depends on what you are after. holmgren's book is brilliant - but not for gardeners...it looks more specifically at how permaculture will assist in the transition to a more sustainable world)

[Chook Nut]

i didn't think it had much to do with gardening.... it's fairly new is all..... i haven't seen it in any major bookstores yet so i thought i would throw it out there....

i take it you read it and enjoyed it then... .... makes the wait in getting it myself all the more worthwhile....

i found a couple of other books that are interesting to read are "Guns, Germs and Steel" by Jared Diamond .... it's basically a short history of evolving civilisations of the last 13,000 years. It goes into why some countries ended up where they are today and why the 3rd workd and indigineous people lucked out.

and the "Critical Path" R. Buckminster Fuller..... a genious of the 20th Century..... his ideas on a global community that shares it's resources were radical at the time.

oh well... thats enough rambling from me :p

Dave

[TriciaM]

WOW! Your terrific suggestions will keep me occupied for ages.
I'll train it down to Sydney next Friday in the hope that a couple of the books might be obtained from Parramatta Library. If not I'll continue on to the Mitchell Library in Sydney and order them through the interlibrary loan method.

Thanksalot
TriciaM