Bucky
User
A Fertile Cocoon
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The old worm/woodlands/duff question - 2009/01/16 12:58
Not to beat this dead horse into the ground, but I'm still so confused...
Here's my story. At home, I'm an ardent fan of the worm, with an outdoor worm bed whose denizens make short shrift of my kitchen scraps plus manure plus autumn leaves, and who produce the gorgeous vermicompost for my home veg/flower garden. I love a worm.
At work, I'm a gardener at a public garden in NJ. I had an idea to use the copious amount of horse manure produced by our friendly horses at the stable to set up outdoor vermicomposting beds, so that we'd get lovely vermicompost for our garden. We have a large wooded area that is not a part of the garden and I thought that this would be a good area since there's plenty of space and it's shady. My manager, however, is concerned about the risk of the worms/cocoons getting into the surrounding woodlands and "negatively impacting" the ecology. The more I read about the Minnesota situation, etc., the more I regrettfully am beginning to believe he is correct. Additionally, the garden is a naturalistic woodland garden. So I'm wondering if the resulting vermicompost might have too much in the way of live worms/cocoons and those might also have a negative effect on the wildflowers that grow there, and the shade-loving plants we cultivate.
Can I get your opinions? Thanks.
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