Yes, you can go to Starbucks and request their garbage bags of used coffee grounds and filters. Put them on top of the soil (include the filters). Add a bit more top soil to cover the filters. The worms will come. Get as must used coffee grounds as you can find.

What I do when I make a bed is use the lasagna method. You don't have to dig at all. Lay cardboard down over the grass. Wet the cardboard. Add a green like cut grass or kitchen vegetable waste. Wet the green. Add some coffee grounds (lots). Wet it. Add some soil. Wet it. Add cardboard and wet it. Add a green, etc. until the layers are built up enough. End with dirt. You can then cut a hole in the layers with a knife and plant the plants in right away. You end up with wonderfully composted soil and tons of worms.

Carol

I should think you can improve your soil without needing the worm component right away. Just keep on heaping on the organic matter. There are other organisms in the soil besides worms that will work to incorporate the organic matter and break it down.

I'm a big believer in "If you build it, they will come" but I realize you're in an area of unfavorable soils. But if your immediate neighborhood is really inhospitable to worms, I'd wonder if a few raised beds would be enough habitat to support enough worms for long enough for them to breed up a sustainable population.

I don't think there's much harm in trying to release some worms into your raised beds, but maybe wait until you've been adding organic matter to as wide an area as possible for a while longer. Have you got other areas on your property besides the raised beds where worms could live? Maybe paths, planting beds etc. where you could mulch heavily? Do your neighbors have mulched areas or areas with leaf litter?

Another thing to try - maybe keep a worm bin stocked up with the worms you want to release, and gradually release a handful at a time, to see if they settle in or if you need to keep improving the habitat.

Parsley's right: Build it and they will come! But remember to feed them and they will stay! If the worms are getting food, warmth, and water, why would they take on the clay to leave?

My sprinkler man broke three shovels to add two sprinkler heads; so I know the kind of clay your talking about. You said you have raised beds, but I hope you dug into the existing clay to begin your transformation and expansion. You need to keep expanding your circle of influence by continually taking in more of the existing clay.

Vermicomposting works best if you turn the pile to spur action. As you are trying to increase your circle, you should dig deeper and wider into the clay each time: mixing some clay with your bedding. But take this time to add brown and green waste for composting and bury it 10-12" deep - this is food for the worms, not the birds. (Burying it also prevents attracting other critters. Remember, no meats or oils. Raw kitchen scraps, used coffee, cut grass, crushed leaves, etc.)

You know clay does not drain. Therefore, I dig 3-6" deeper than I want. Leave the broken up clay in the bottom 3-4" and then add the green and brown waste. This allows water to moisten the waste without flooding it - worms want moist not floating.

This is a raised bed; not a compost pile, so I expect you want nice looking dirt on top, but give the worms what they need underneath and they will make it home.

It is natural to think of turning the pile by using a shovel and rake, but try pulling back 2-3' of topsoil, using a post-hole digger to go straight down, add your waste, fill in the hole, and cover with your topsoil. This allows minimum disruption of your bed. Make a different hole next week and the worms will start connecting the dots in search of food.

Good luck!

From what I saw today, at least with my soil, is that with time and rain, corrugated cardboard/junkmail/newspaper on the ground will attract worms from below. Lots and lots of them. They also seem to thrive under my oyster shell driveway, so that is something else to consider.

The other posters are right on about introducing organic matter of your own, be it from starbucks or wherever.

There is a special place in hell for greedy developers that scrape away the topsoil. Of course, it is also up to the buyer to find out if the lot they are buying has been so denuded or not.

Hmm, never had clay -- not naturally anyhow. I did (gradually) buy about 2-3 pallets worth of clay kitty litter and ADD IT to my sand lot and flowerbeds to help hold a little moisture while gardening and growing the yard in. Digging post holes and then back filling them with compost, composted manure, kitchen scraps, leaf mold, mulch, etc. sounds like a good idea to me, though.... just keep them well filled so that neither you, nor anyone else falls in. ;-)