Starting a Garden in Chehalis

Howdy from Chehalis. We are doing our first big garden this year. My Dad brought his tractor and tilled a quarter acre for me, and it is going like gangbusters.  The root crops got worms, and the bok choi got chewed on. Pumpkins are everywhere and out of control.

I'm trying to figure out why there are no worms here.  We have a few cows, goats, pigs, chickens... plenty of poop, and after a year... no worms.   Also trying to figure put how to keep bugs off my radishes. I only got to eat the tops.  My corn got half eaten by birds when I planted the seeds. The ones that did come up were 6 inches high, still. I think I will not be preserving corn this year... and I think I better learn to really, really like zucchini and pumpkin...

P Colvin wrote:Howdy from Chehalis. We are doing our first big garden this year. My Dad brought his tractor and tilled a quarter acre for me, and it is going like gangbusters.  The root crops got worms, and the bok choi got chewed on. Pumpkins are everywhere and out of control.

I'm trying to figure out why there are no worms here.  We have a few cows, goats, pigs, chickens... plenty of poop, and after a year... no worms.   Also trying to figure put how to keep bugs off my radishes. I only got to eat the tops.  My corn got half eaten by birds when I planted the seeds. The ones that did come up were 6 inches high, still. I think I will not be preserving corn this year... and I think I better learn to really, really like zucchini and pumpkin...

Hi, I'm in Tacoma and I find the worms tend to go deeper when it's warm &/or dry. Have you used a good layer of mulch?  That should help keep the worms closer to the surface during the summer months. No worries, the worms are there but in hiding.

I agree about the worms going deeper, and that it might take a while for them to multiply back up. I'm pretty close by to you, and have seen worms on my property increase over the last few years that I've been gardening

We have lived here a year
I have had the cows in the barn w litter building up there,  and its resulting compost pile.  No worms. Same deep litter w chickens and pigs, no worms. In the garden space there must be worms, bc the robins like to go there when the sprinkler is done running.  I have seen 3 small earthworms in a year on this 13 acres. It is clay soil.  Also don't  see a lot of honey bees at all, although I have 3 neighbors within 3 miles that have hives. One of them is on a big field.cover planted with radish blossoms.  We have bumble bees, though, mud daubers and only a few (thank God) yellow jackets. They were pollinating, so I let them.. bee... haha.

This place was forested until right before we.moved in, they logged it. The field was hayed. So maybe that has something to do with it, plus the hard clay.