Congrats on your worms!!! I enjoyed your post - I'm a newbie, too. I've got clay, which I've found out is not unusual in NJ. I dug new beds last spring, amended them with my own compost, and was thrilled to find worms in the soil a few weeks ago when I was planting bulbs.

So keep digging, amending and having fun. Good luck!

Thanks, classytchr. Did you plant tulips? Don't know if southern Jersey has many rabbits as we do here in central/coastal part of state. People who have cats say they don't have much of a rabbit problem but not going to get a cat just for that. I could put some catmint into the butterfly garden to do double duty hoping to attract one big cat who wanders the neighborhood even though I go after him with a broom when he shows up while my groundfeeding avian friends are eating. Saw him grab a mole or baby possum once and shooed him away as birds were eating nearby. He took the prey but my birds were warned off.

I'm wondering how I'm going to protect all the bulbs I've planted while they're still tender. Know everything I read says rabbits and deer don't eat much aside from tulips but I'll believe that when and if I see it next spring...LOL. There are plenty of daffodils and other narcissus, alliums, crocus, muscari, hyacinths and others I can't remember. It was a veritable bulb binge. I went so far as to put some in bulb cages and layered others in stretched steel wool to keep squirrels, moles, voles, chipmunks and anything else that web sites said could go after bulbs once they were in the ground. If there was a warning option out there I used it. Sufferin' succotash...now to get past those "pesky wabbits"!

Most of the bulbs have to go in containers since there isn't much ground not invaded by tree/shrub roots and/or miles of underground vines that remind me of some old horror movie. I've hacked away with an ax and hatchet as much as I can to plant two small beds with bulbs but the rest are going into containers. I've got bubble wrap and "plankets" to cover yet not smother them to try and keep bulbs from heaving in containers as we go through winter/spring. After first really hard freeze I'll put piles of leaves between containers and "plankets" for added insulation until worst of season is over and then uncover them once last freeze passes. Heck, there's over 150 bulbs so something should bloom!

Good luck to you too. We'll compare blooming notes come spring!