Garden Allies: Earthworms

Red Wiggler (Eisenia fetida). Illus: Craig Latker
From Wrigglers to Nightcrawlers
On the occasion of Charles Darwin’s 200th birthday, it seems fitting to learn about one of the gardener’s most important allies; the earthworm. Darwin is best known for his theory of evolution by natural selection, but he studied many natural history subjects in depth. Orchids, carnivorous plants, barnacles, and coral reefs all fell under his encompassing scrutiny, but the subject of his greatest interest, other than natural selection, may well have been earthworms. Darwin studied earthworms for almost forty years, from shortly after he quit the Beagle, until near the end of his long life. At the time that he was lying on his belly watching towers of castings forming on the flat surface of a pasture, worms were generally regarded as a pest. Until the publication of his book, The Formation of Vegetable Mould, Through the Action of Worms, in 1881, earthworms were not deemed worthy of scientific attention. How pleased Darwin would be to see their status today!

Gardeners now hold earthworms in high regard, but even so, few of us u...