New (naive) gardener - worm poo

[CherriBlossim]

I've just been out in the patio and all around my geranium pot there were black earthy circular piles. Couldn't work out what it was and then I saw an earthworm poking out of the top of the pot and it looked like poo coming out.

Is this normal? Do they poo earth?

Eat earth, poo earth!
Earth worms eat earth, taking out the organic matter (bits of rotten leaves etc) and poop out the rest in worm casts - the wriggly bits of earth on lawn and around plant pots. But they're so great for the soil so hooray for the worm.
BTW is it a hardy geranium? Might need to give it a bit of shelter otherwise.

Oh my goodness. I "knew" worms were good for soil but thought it was just because they wriggled through it. It was quite amazing to see, I must admit.

OK, I need to sweep up those bits and put them somewhere useful them. I don't know how hardy the geranium is but it's within a walled patio, so quite protected (don't know how to tell if a geranium is hardy or not).

...one more question seeing you are knowledgable, but why would the worm have been doing that OUTSIDE of the plant pot? It's bum was almost hanging out of it.

I'm not a worm specialist! If the pot was very wet the worm might have come up to get some air - if the soil gets too wet the worms can't breathe so come up to the surface. It might have been looking for leaves to drag into the soil too, if it was really hungry. Just chuck the worm casts on a border, you don't have to do anything special with them.
Regarding your geranium, if it has big heads of pink or red flowers then it most probably won't like frosts. Bring it inside if your patio might freeze (or buy some new ones in the spring if they die ).

ooh but you are! That's why worms appear when it's raining. I'm finding the life of worms very interesting suddenly.

The earth in the pot was very wet so that explains that. Fascinating stuff. Need to wait until it's dry outside before I rescue the black stuff and put it somewhere that needs it.

Gernaiums don't like wet wet soil, it rots their roots, so I would drain pot off and bring into a sheltered if not heated place even if it is a hardier geranium. I think of them as Italian and liking Italian like weather - lol