Grass Clippings - Lawn Advice From a Team of Lawn and Turf Experts

Dakota Gardener: Earthworms and gardens

Gardening lessons are always a highlight of my summer programs writes Carrie Knutson, NDSU Extension Agent, Grand Forks County, USA.

This year when I asked the gardeners what they wanted to learn about for their last lesson, worms were the undisputed winner. Earthworms are a beneficial garden creature that many of us take for granted.

We have thousands of different types of earthworms. The scientific classification could be and probably is a college course. Earthworms belong to the animal kingdom and phylum Annelid. To prevent information overload, I will stop there with earthworm scientific classification.

Casting Worm Aside on Lawns this September

For several decades, lawns both small and large have been plagued by worm casts. The worms do a splendid job in the soil just beneath the grass plant crown, but it's their soil cast deposits that pose a real problem for lawn owners.

With the recent wet August, the earthworms are having a field day!

The domestic lawn is set to become a sanctuary for casting worms this spring. The record volume of rainfall this winter coupled with mild temperatures is the ideal scenario for this to become a reality. Although the ideal time for worm cast control is early September, the use of CastClear® can help alleviate worm deposits now!

For several decades, lawns both small and large have been plagued by worm casts. The worms do a splendid job in the soil just beneath the grass plant crown, but it's their soil cast deposits that pose a real problem for lawn owners.

With the recent wet August, the earthworms are having a field day!

The domestic lawn is set to become a sanctuary for casting worms this spring. The record volume of rainfall this winter coupled with mild temperatures is the ideal scenario for this to become a reality. Although the ideal time for worm cast control is early September, the use of CastClear® can help alleviate worm deposits now!

For several decades, lawns both small and large have been plagued by worm casts. The worms do a splendid job in the soil just beneath the grass plant crown, but it's their soil cast deposits that pose a real problem for lawn owners.

With the recent wet August, the earthworms are having a field day!

The domestic lawn is set to become a sanctuary for casting worms this spring. The record volume of rainfall this winter coupled with mild temperatures is the ideal scenario for this to become a reality. Although the ideal time for worm cast control is early September, the use of CastClear® can help alleviate worm deposits now!

Rain heralds arrival of Worm Casts

After any rain received, the Earthworms will be sending their annoying little soil casts up onto the surface of your lawns as the root zone gets a little soggy for them to move about in.

The more rain we get = the more worm casts as the soil water to air ratio reduces to favour the rain. Earthworms need to breathe and thus clean their burrows.

CastClear is the solution to lawn worm casts as the worms do not like the taste of this barrier product when applied to the lawn and are encouraged to stay deeper in the soil profile and not cast on the surface. Repeat after 20 days at 1/3rd the initial dose rate. The worms are unharmed by this nutrient based product.

You can get some online from The Lawn Shop & Amazon

Ten Interesting Facts about Earthworms

Are Earthworms a Garden's Friend of Foe? That depends.  Here are 10 things you may want to know about earthworms:

1. Earthworms come in a seemly infinite variety—around 6,000 species worldwide.

One of the most familiar of them, the sort you may see in your garden, is commonly known as the night crawler (it typically surfaces after dark), the angleworm (its makes popular bait for fishing) or the rain worm (it leaves waterlogged soil after storms).

2. Of the more than 180 earthworm species found in the U.S. and Canada, 60 are invasive species, brought over from the Old World, including the night crawler.

3. Lacking lungs or other specialized respiratory organs, earthworms breathe through their skin.

Are Earthworms a Garden's Friend of Foe? That depends.  Here are 10 things you may want to know about earthworms:

1. Earthworms come in a seemly infinite variety—around 6,000 species worldwide.

One of the most familiar of them, the sort you may see in your garden, is commonly known as the night crawler (it typically surfaces after dark), the angleworm (its makes popular bait for fishing) or the rain worm (it leaves waterlogged soil after storms).

2. Of the more than 180 earthworm species found in the U.S. and Canada, 60 are invasive species, brought over from the Old World, including the night crawler.

3. Lacking lungs or other specialized respiratory organs, earthworms breathe through their skin.

Solving Lawn Worm Casts with CastClear

CastClear is the solution to lawn worm casts.

It's a lawn soil cast suppressant and a deterrent. It's proven in control on both lawns and sports turf.

Which? Gardening Trials Team trialled it and gave it the thumbs up.

It is unique in using a surfactant system that moves the nutrient into the upper soil structure and fixes it there providing good persistence of deterrent effect until breaking down to natural nutrients absorbed by plant roots.

Aeration - A Beginners Guide

In a wet winter similar to the one we have just experienced, failure to carry out a programme of lawn aeration can lead to an entirely different problem. This is when surface sealing can often occur, due to the compacting effect of trampling feet and heavy maintenance machinery.

Under these conditions, water is prevented from percolating; it will remain on the surface, restricting gaseous exchange and lead to moss or the build up of fibrous growth. If steps are not taken to relieve the compaction, a fibrous matt develops, restricting the amount of air, moisture and nutrients available to the grasses and creating ideal conditions for diseases to thrive.

The Solution to Lawn Worm Casts

CastClear is an organic and unique combination of nutrient materials that have been clearly shown to reduce lawn soil-cast levels on lawns large and small.

It's the Solution to lawn soil cast problems and has been selling in Garden Centres since the Autumn of 2011 with over 15,000 Litres sold to date.

Benefits of applying CastClear:

It's Worm Cast Time!

With the prevailing weather being quite mild, it was 10 degrees centigrade yesterday; your lawn turf grasses will be growing quite nicely now. We have had a little respite in the rainfall of the past three months but heh ho, it is still Winter!

The Earthworms will be having a bit of a mad time, throwing their sticky and annoying soil casts onto the surface of your lawns and it is a great time to apply a treatment of CastClear - The Solution to Worm Casts on Lawns.

Buy it on Amazon, or the link below where there is currently zero shipping to UK Mainland Locations.

Buy CastClear from The Lawn Shop

Happy New Year from The Grass Clippings Team

The Grass Clippings Team would like to wish all our Readers a happy and healthy 2020.  Bring on 'The Roaring Twenties'

With over 1,450 technical articles here on our Lawn Blog, you are never more than a simple search away from a useful and technically correct article about caring for your lawn.

The weather in the UK is still rather mild and the grass is still growing which is not bad for the 8th of January!  Don't be shy to run the mower over the lawns if ground conditions permit over the next week or two and trimming the lawn will really lift the garden.

Are Worm Casts destroying your Lawn?

The worms do a splendid job in the soil just beneath the grass crown, but it is a pity that their soil cast deposits pose such a problem for lawn owners.

CastClear is an organic non-pesticide control solution available to domestic lawn owners to deter the worms from casting.   There are only five types of casting worms found in UK lawns. 

Other European countries also suffer worm worm casts on turf.  The problem can be solved  CastClear is the solution to lawn soil casts.

Time to become a CastClear Stockist

We get a lot of the Garden Retail Trade referring to our lawn advice blog to their customers and a lot of garden professionals reading it too.  We thank you all!

If you are a garden retail outlet servicing gardeners with lawns then you should be stocking CastClear - the lawn worm cast suppressant and deterrent as they will all have a lawn worm cast problem.  It's a problem that all lawn owners face in the autumn months.

We get a lot of the Garden Retail Trade referring to our lawn advice blog to their customers and a lot of garden professionals reading it too.  We thank you all!

If you are a garden retail outlet servicing gardeners with lawns then you should be stocking CastClear - the lawn worm cast suppressant and deterrent as they will all have a lawn worm cast problem.  It's a problem that all lawn owners face in the autumn months.

We get a lot of the Garden Retail Trade referring to our lawn advice blog to their customers and a lot of garden professionals reading it too.  We thank you all!

If you are a garden retail outlet servicing gardeners with lawns then you should be stocking CastClear - the lawn worm cast suppressant and deterrent as they will all have a lawn worm cast problem.  It's a problem that all lawn owners face in the autumn months.

We get a lot of the Garden Retail Trade referring to our lawn advice blog to their customers and a lot of garden professionals reading it too.  We thank you all!

If you are a garden retail outlet servicing gardeners with lawns then you should be stocking CastClear - the lawn worm cast suppressant and deterrent as they will all have a lawn worm cast problem.  It's a problem that all lawn owners face in the autumn months.

The Solution to Lawn Worm Casts

CastClear is the solution to lawn worm casts.  It's a lawn soil cast suppressant and a deterrent.  It's proven control on both lawns and sports turf.

Which? Gardening Trials Team trialled it and gave it the thumbs up.

It is unique in using a surfactant system that moves the nutrient into the upper soil structure and fixes it there providing good persistence of deterrent effect until breaking down to natural nutrients absorbed by plant roots.

Earthworm Infestations on Lawns

There are a lot of lawns being ruined by worm casts with recent rainfall, with multi sticky mounds of soil coming through the lawn.

Earthworm infestations can be massive, with many thousands per every 100 square metres.

It is not the worms that are directly the problem, but their castings on your lawn.

CastClear is the lawn treatment for worms and their casts and when applied correctly with a garden sprayer, the product will form a barrier layer in the soil that the Earthworms do not like passing through and they will stay deeper in the soil profile.

Garden Innovation from The Lawn Company Team

The Team at The Lawn Company who created, manufacture and distribute Indigo Garden Spray Dye are an innovative lot whom are capable of taking products that are widely used in the professional sports turf industry and scaling them down to benefit lawn owners and gardeners alike.

The scary thing about some of the much larger UK garden chemical companies is that thay may have an amenity (golf course) and consumer (homeowner) side to their business structure yet they suprisingly fail to bridge the gap.

The Boy, The Mole, The Fox and The Horse by Charlie Mackesy

It's not often that we write about a book here but the fact that artist Charlie Mackesy was featuring a Mole in his New York Times Bestseller was a good enough excuse to tell you about it:

The Sunday Times Bestseller and New York Times Bestseller. Shortlisted for Waterstones Book of the Year.

The tenuous link here is that Moles love Earthworms and CastClear controls their sticky and muddy casts on your lawn.  Are we forgiven now?