Look what I found! Can you see it? It’s an earthworm, one of a gardener’s greatest friends—in a pot on a second floor balcony! I found it when turning up the soil for planting (yes, even potting soil can benefit from loosening up) and was glad I didn’t damage it in the process, though they can grow back missing parts—given the right conditions. I hope it hides well so the birds don’t make lunch of it.
I found some interesting facts about earthworms on this site:http://urbanext.illinois.edu/worms/facts/index.html , such as, they eat their weight everyday—I hate to think about the 22 foot long earthworm found in South Africa! Earthworms have to have the right conditions, this site says, or “they’ll go somewhere else” so my garden must measure up. But what do they eat? If they live near the surface they eat fallen leaves and dead grass, especially the bacteria that live on such organic matter but when they live in deeper dirt—they eat dirt! http://www.professorshouse.com/Your-Home/Gardening-Plants/General/Articles/What-Do-Worms-Eat/
Yesterday’s orange hibiscus finally opened—here’s a picture of the colorful orange beauty with it's magenta throat. It’s still open today in the early afternoon though the edges of the petals are curling. Even fleeting beauty is still beauty.
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