Digging up the soil in the front yard vegetable garden I noticed there were a lot of worms, fishing worm size, in the soil. This is a good sign since it means the neighborhood worms are being drawn to the box by the good compost nature of the soil. One good-sized worm had a tiny baby worm hanging out of one end. At first I though this was unusual, but then I realized that I was witnessing the baby worm just being born from an adult worm. Worms are hermaphrodites, both sexes in one animal, and this worm was just doing what comes naturally to it, reproducing.
Besides reproducing, what comes naturally to worms is renewal of the earth. Worms are simple animals, basically eating the compost in the soil at one end, and transforming it into organic rich soil and casting it out the other end. “The most common worm is the earthworm, a member of phylum Annelida. Earthworms in general have been around for 120 million years, and are theorized to have evolved during the time of the dinosaurs. They enrich and aerate the soil; Charles Darwin found that worms turn over the top six inches (15 cm) of topsoil every 20 years.”
Eating and reproducing are natural to worms. They live a simple life. No wonder they have been around since the days of the dinosaurs.
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