Soil: A Worm Garden Experiment

I went to the local school store and found a worm farm and I could order the worms, it was going to cost of $40!  For Dirt and Worms?  I don't think so!  So, Cooper and I went over to Hobby Lobby and looked for clear containers, I was thinking $10 was plenty of money to spend on containers and worms and it was.  We found two clear plastic display containers.  We went to a bait store and bought the worms, we don't have time for digging.  All cost was less than $10  I'm sure we could have done it for free if we'd wanted to.

We put sand in the bottom for drainage and because worms like sand too.

We kept the middle container centered so that we would be sure to see the worms working.  We added layers of food, grass clippings, dirt, sand, oats, paper, water and more dirt.

After we finished we added our worms.  These suckers were HUGE. I probably should have bought regular warms but "Night Crawlers" sounded fun.  We waited for them to crawl down into the dirt and watched.

Worms need sleep too.

So, nighty night worms.  We made a paper covering with black construction paper that we can slip on and off to check on our worms and their activity.  I'm still trying to decide if they need more dirt.  I think we'll be adding more but for now, they are working on what they have. 

This is not a study of worms but a study of soil and how it is made so that it is usable for gardens and growing.  However, curiosity is going to get to them and it will turn into a study of worms, I just know it.  Also, I had the hardest time finding a similar experiment to make sure we were doing this right.  Here's what I found that I loved and you'll love this little site too...The Magic Onions: Worm Garden