"My dirt is awful and through the months I've been reading this board, many people have the same problem. When I water it just runs to the street. Water is really expensive here, and I can't afford to waste it."

kltampa, I totally understand this, Im on pure sand and where I am we have a really bad problem with hydrophic soil, the sand is naturally very oily and it doesnt matter how much water you put on it, it wont go in past a milimetre (that's right, I said a mm!). we have been on water restrictions for about 6 years too, and water is very expensive so I cant afford to waste it. In the short term you can use a soil wetting agent, which work wonders on water repellant soil, but in the long term, especially if you are on sandy soil, you need lots and lots of organic matter, for me that means I constantly compost and mulch, and if I can see any sand appearing, I add more. It does take some time to build up the soil but you should see the soil improve and hold the moisture, and the mulch will cut down on water evaporation as well. hope this helps

kltampa -

Sorry - but I've been lurking and came across your post. I appreciate your concerns about trying to grow things in a very sandy soil. It seems we have been living in such areas for years. Yes, and I also lived in Florida on the islands for awhile, in our local desert, now in California coastal, and appreciate your thinking.

Many folks now in California are opting for a dry climate kind of growing scene. Many desert dwellers like this approach too. I think if I had to replace grass at several thousand dollars a pop, that I would look into xeriscaping - using native plants to beautify the area which require little if any water.

You might skip on over to some of the other forums - Desert, Florida, California and Xeriscaping forums and see how folks address this problem.

Most of my composting efforts go into enriching the soil in planter boxes (9 in all, now), that I grow my vegetables and fruits in all year round. It is much easier to deal with than - say an entire yard.

But, if you still want grass - I'm sure you must be aware of St. Augustine, Bermuda and Zoysias, which thrive in the heat, but of course need fertilizing to keep looking pristine and plenty of water in the summer heat - also watering in the cool of the day will help conserve water.

Don't know what all of this has to do with worms, but hopefully, you find something here to be of value.

Bejay

Appreciate the advice and words of wisdom! trancegemini, I feel for you - sand and oily too? Yikes!

I have actually Xeriscaped about 3/4 of my front yard, I live on a corner lot and haven't come up with any ideas there except for perhaps an island that I will put in when the grass get replaced. In the back, I have a garden bed butting up next to the pool cage, then grass/weeds and another large garden going the extent of the fence behind me. It is about 30 yards long. The garden is beginning to extend to the sides of the fence that surround the back, but there is not alot of room between the fence and my house. I've really cut back on the grassy areas, but grass is still going to be inevitable.

Because of the draught situation and water restrictions, the homeowners association has loosened up somewhat on their tolerance for Xeriscaping but there's no way they would go for the entire yard being done this way. One homeowner fought and won the right to put some type of grass that falls into the Xeriscape category in their yard, but I just don't care for the grass. It is like a yard of clover that has yellow flowers appear sometime during the year, and it spreads like crazy annoying their grass obsessed neighbors.

I realize we have really gotten off the topic of worms and apologize to anyone who may be annoyed by this; I just wanted to respond to those who were kind enough to get through initial post and offer some ideas.

Now with the worms, my bin is filled with the dirt and other organic matter I captured them in as well as paper. Can I slowly start sifting out some of the dirt and substituting shredded paper/cardboard in an effort to identify and harvest their droppings? I'm thinking this will allow them to slowly acclimate to the changing environment with too much shock.

How much dirt? If you mean a handful of three, just leave it. If the bin's full of dirt, I would start over with the worms, some bedding, food, and a handful of dirt.

Chuckiebtoo

Well Chuckietoo, that's what I did, cleaned out the dirt, made a new bed of shredded paper, stuffed some toilet paper rolls with food and threw in a couple handfuls of bagged manure. These are earthworms, so I relly hope they will be ok.

The earth they were in was pretty moist.

I doubt you are going to get anything you want with a rubbermaid and a few handfulls of earthworms.

Esinia Fetida (what a lot of people use here, red wigglers) reproduce fast and eat a lot. I wish you luck, but know you might have better luck with redworms.

I think youd need a large system to get enough to improve your entire yard. I personally think yards and neighborhood associations are large wastes, and sorry you have to please them.