About the Book Worms play a vital role in soil health, soil fertility and the yield of a garden. Designed as a easy-to-use handbook, Worms at Work is a guide to creating and harnessing the power of vermicompost. Intended for the beginning gardener and experienced farmer alike, all that is required is a healthy appreciation for healthy, happy soil! Book Synopsis Fertilize your garden naturally--a guide to growing your plants in healthy, happy soil People want to know where their food comes from, who grows it and how it is grown. Interest in permaculture, backyard composting, and gardening in general, is growing. So how does the budding gardener ensure that his soil is healthy and nutrient-rich enough to support all the produce he intends to grow? Heres a hint--think worms! Vermiculture is the healthiest and most cost-effective way to ensure that your soil receives the nourishment that it needs. A simple vermicompost bin can produce the completely natural , nutrient-rich fertilizer that can be used to boost soil health and, in turn, increase your crop yield. In true Crystal Stevens fashion, Worms at Work is a practical, easy-to-implement guide to fertilizing your garden naturally. It discusses the vital role worms play in boosting soil health, and the reasons why every gardener should use vermicompost in order to decrease reliance on toxic synthetic fertilizers. Coverage includes: Simple designs to build your own vermicompost bin Caring for your worms Garden applications for your worm castings Lesson plans to incorporate vermicomposting into the school science curriculum Whether youre tending to a small backyard garden or managing a large farm, Worms at Work can show you how to start vermicomposting today in order to grow healthy plants in healthy, happy soil. Crystal Stevens is the author of Grow Create Inspire and has been co-manager of La Vista CSA Farm for the past 7 years. She teaches regular Vermiculture 101 workshops. From the Back Cover Fertilize your garden naturally--A GUIDE TO GROWING YOUR PLANTS IN HEALTHY, HAPPY SOIL Reading this engaging and practical guide by Crystal Stevens will surely turn anyone into an earthworm enthusiast. A great little guide to everything you need to know about earthworms! -- LINDA GILKESON, author, Backyard Bounty ...a detailed, beautifully thorough treatise on worms. ...Following in the footsteps of Darwin with her praise of the mighty earthworm, Crystal Stevens has done a superb job with this much-needed and timely work.-- MATT POWERS, author, The Permaculture Student Series INCREASINGLY, we want to know where our food comes from, who grows it and how its grown, and interest in backyard gardening and composting is growing. So how does the budding gardener ensure that the soil is healthy and nutrient-rich enough to support growing some great food? One answer -- worms! Vermiculture is the healthiest and most cost-effective way to ensure that your soil receives the nourishment that it needs. A simple vermicompost bin can produce completely natural, nutrient-rich fertilizer that can be used to boost soil health and, in turn, increase crop yield. Worms at Work is a practical, easy-to-implement guide to fertilizing and enriching your garden naturally. It discusses the vital role worms play in building soil health, and the reasons why every gardener should use vermicompost in order to decrease reliance on toxic synthetic fertilizers. Covering simple designs for building your own vermicompost bin, whether for a small backyard garden or for a larger farm or homestead, to the care and feeding of worms and how to use worm castings in the garden, Worms at Work will help you put YOUR worms to work to grow happy, healthy plants in happy, healthy soil. Worms could save our civilization.-- ALBERT BATES, author, The Post-Petroleum Survival Guide and Cookbook, The Biochar Solution , and The Paris Agreement CRYSTAL STEVENS is an herbalist, writer, artist, and vegetable farmer. Together with her husband Eric, Crystal co-managed La Vista Farm, a CSA serving 150 families, for seven years. They live along the bluffs of the Mississippi River in Godfrey, IL with their two children. Crystal is also the author of Grow Create Inspire . About the Author Crystal Stevens and her husband, Eric, have been managing La Vista CSA Farm for the past 6 years. As they operate on a shoestring budget, this forces them to find creative, cost-effective methods to improve soil fertility and plant health in order to boost crop yields. Upon their arrival at La Vista, they built vermicompost bins and added a mail-order bag of 250 worms which have multiplied by the hundreds of thousands since then. They have been teaching Vermiculture 101 workshops for several years, and have both completed the Missouri Master Naturalist and Missouri Master Gardener programs. Crystal is a blogger for Mother Earth News and contributes regularly to The Healthy Planet , Grit Magazine and Permaculture Magazine . She also hosts dozen of workshops on resilient living and teaches a summer gardening camp for kids.