Worms at Work: Harnessing the Awesome Power of Worms with Vermiculture and Vermicomposting by Crystal Stevens

Fertilize your garden naturally--a guide to growing your plants in healthy, happy soil

People want to know where their food comes from, who grows it and how it is grown. Interest in permaculture, backyard composting, and gardening in general, is growing. So how does the budding gardener ensure that his soil is healthy and nutrient-rich enough to support all the produce he intends to grow? Here's a hint--think worms! Vermiculture is the healthiest and most cost-effective way to ensure that your soil receives the nourishment that it needs. A simple vermicompost bin can produce the completely natural , nutrient-rich fertilizer that can be used to boost soil health and, in turn, increase your crop yield.

In true Crystal Stevens' fashion, Worms at Work is a practical, easy-to-implement guide to fertilizing your garden naturally. It discusses the vital role worms play in boosting soil health, and the reasons why every gardener should use vermicompost in order to decrease reliance on toxic synthetic fertilizers. Coverage includes:

• Simple designs to build your own vermicompost bin
• Caring for your worms
• Garden applications for your worm castings
• Lesson plans to incorporate vermicomposting into the school science curriculum

Crystal Stevens and her husband, Eric, have been managing La Vista CSA Farm for the past 6 years. As they operate on a shoestring budget, this forces them to find creative, cost-effective methods to improve soil fertility and plant health in order to boost crop yields. Upon their arrival at La Vista, they built vermicompost bins and added a mail-order bag of 250 worms which have multiplied by the hundreds of thousands since then. They have been teaching Vermiculture 101 workshops for several years, and have both completed the Missouri Master Naturalist and Missouri Master Gardener programs. Crystal is a blogger for Mother Earth News and contributes regularly to The Healthy Planet , Grit Magazine and Permaculture Magazine . She also hosts dozen of workshops on resilient living and teaches a summer gardening camp for kids.

Review Quotes:

Crystal Stevens combines years of experience with her love of teaching to present a straightforward and gentle introduction to raising beneficial worms. Her passion for sustainable living and organic gardening rings true with her ideas for how homesteaders and worms can team up to create a better world - both above and below-ground. - Hannah Kincaid, Mother Earth News

This isn't just a book about vermicomposting (although it does a great job teaching the how and why), it is a book that tells the magical story of how soil is a whole world of microorganism and organic matter below our feet and can be regenerated to create fertility in the garden and sequester carbon on the planet for the health of all species. This is at the cutting edge of permaculture thinking and research, admirably explained and with a host of great illustrations and photographs. - Maddy Harland Editor and Co-Founder, Permaculture Magazine

Worms at Work is a great starting point for exploring the basics of soil science and composting. Unlike a lot of other books on soil, this book is easily digestible; readable in a weekend and written for students and beginning gardeners. Overall, Crystal Stevens does an excellent job of combining soil theory with practical, hands on ways to learn more and to start building soil with worms today -- no land or fancy equipment required. While the book is readable for a weekend, there are weeks worth of activities in the book to bring the learning to life. If I wanted to get someone excited about soil, this is the book I would give them. - diego footer author Bokashi Composting

Reading this engaging and practical guide by Crystal Stevens will surely turn anyone into an earthworm enthusiast. After chapters devoted to earthworm biology and their role in building healthy soil, she provides easyto-follow instructions for raising worms on any scale, from small kitchen bins to backyard compost piles and ingeniously designed worm farms. She even includes ideas for earthworm field days and school lessons to spread the love of these amazing creatures in the community. A great little guide to everything you need to know about earthworms! - Linda Gilkeson author, Backyard Bounty

Worms at Work is a detailed, beautifully thorough treatise on worms. It delves into the details of vermicomposting, how to skillfully utilize vermicompost, the soil science behind it all, worm anatomy, and much more. It is well organized and easy to reference - perfect for anyone wanting to start or refine the usage of worms in a home or garden situation. Following in the footsteps of Darwin with her praise of the mighty earthworm, Crystal Stevens has done a superb job with this much-needed and timely work. - Matt Powers educator and author, The Permaculture Student Series, ThePermacultureStudent.com

Humans seem to have a relationship with worms that goes beyond mere curiosity. We all emerge from a worm of sperm and return to the embrace of worms recycling our remains. They start us, they complete us. In Worms at Work, Crystal Stevens opens the bigger can, asking: "what if big companies, factories, and corporations simply stopped producing anything made from nonrenewable resources and instead made the same items from renewable resources such as agricultural waste, hemp, and bamboo?" Worms could save our civilization. - Albert Bates author, The Post-Petroleum Survival Guide, The Biochar Solution, and The Paris Agreement