worth buying worms for clay soil?

[pointydog]

Hello gardening people.

No sign of life in my garden soil. It is very heavy clay. If I buy a load of worms for my soil will they thrive or will they all die/bugger off?

Does anyone know about this?

| should think it already has worms..do people really buy them in? except for a wormery

you're better off buying a tonne of mushroom compost and a tonne of fine gravel and digging it in. Hard work though.

No, there is not a single worm in our garden. Honestly, not a one. Slugs, snails, slaters, spiders, things of that ilk. No worms.

I think you can buy worms on t'interweb. But maybe they just hate heavy clay soil?

Dh dug up one border bit last summer and he dug in peat and sand so texture has improved on that side. I thought worms would provide some ongoing churning. Would it be at all beneficial for the soil to get worms? Or am I just too fond of worms?

are worms always good things to have in a garden?

Worms: you need to get the right kind.

Compost worms aka red wigglers, tiger worms will only thrive in a wormery (basically a dark box with lid and drainage/air holes) not in your garden.

Earthworms will generally arrive, unless you've got dead or waterlogged soil. Adding manure or other vegetable matter but not digging too much will encourage them - but not mushroom compost as it can be both very alkaline and full of chemicals used to stop anything except for mushrooms growing on it.

We had very very heavy clay soil - needed a pickaxe to dig - but plenty of worms in areas where I'd spread compost/manure in previous years.

aha!

Earthworms, ok. Manure/compost ok. Do you know of any good sites re purchasing, lady?

Manure/compost - if your local city has a police stables that's a good place to ask, likewise any local allotments will often have a regular delivery that you can ask/buy from.

Worms: wiggly wigglers used to have a website, but I'm not sure if it's there still. Possibly the organic gardening catalogue too, as it's their kind of thing....

I miss my garden! Taking on a hotel in the town centre kind of put paid to both space and time for gardening though. We have a beer courtyard...!