We have five acres of the worst heavy clay I have ever seen here in Nebraska. For a couple months in spring, much of it is under an inch or more of water for several months at a time. (March to May, sometimes later.)
I am desperate to improve it and am considering digging a trench and starting up a worm farm to raise the numbers of the little guys on the property, but I am concerned that they would all be drowned every spring anyway.
Would I be better off doing a raised bed of some sort for them, or would that just make them freeze instead? What about an unlined trench? (I’d like them to be able to get out and work on the rest of my yard anyway.) Does anyone have any experience with a situation like this?
IOU101, hmm, I don’t have a steady source of manure either. Though it would give me an excuse to start riding again! Thanks for the warning.
Mckay, you’re correct about my main goal. Unfortunately, I’m not willing to put the money or effort in to actually drain the land. It’s not cropland. I have some dead trees I’d like to get felled and mulched along one side and perhaps that by itself might help raise the population of wormies, especially if I can find a better source of manure to spread as well…
deskwalker, that’s a very interesting proposal, though I think if we did anything to make the mosquitoes worse, the neighbors might lynch us. They’re bad enough already! Still, I will consider improving the longer lasting wetland areas to see if I can get more frogs and dragonflies to work on the mosquitoes…
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