Adding Worms to the Garden

Answer by WR: Red worms do best in very rich organic matter with plenty of moisture and microbes. I.e., they do best in the compost. They don’t do so well in the garden, at least here in our climate. (I’m not sure about other places.) You’ve probably noticed the earthworms you dig up in your garden / lawn are different than the red worms that you might see in your compost. I ended up with lots of red worms in my compost (not a hot compost pile) and I didn’t put them there. They just showed up and were happy there and reproduced (and reproduced!). But I’ve not seen red worms in the garden itself. Just those brownish earthworms. As you build up your garden with compost, then the right type of earthworms will come, the kind that like to live in the garden. I don’t know about adding earthworms to the garden explicitly. Happy gardening in this crazy, challenging but fun place to garden, Albuquerque.

Answer by PB: I put earthworms in my raised bed when it was built in 2007. They have multiplied nicely. Red wriggles / compost worms like to live in damp decaying environments. They can be found in nature under rotting tree stumps and piles of leaves. WR is correct, they will come to your compost pile if the conditions are right.