Worms are a football pitch's hardest working players. There are up to five million of them living under a pitch. In the German city of Worms, there's a team called Wormatia FC. This challenge is to make a team of worms in a glass jar and see how they work.
What difference does it make?
Earthworms eat tiny creatures in the soil and aerate it by making holes. Plants take nutrition from their poo to grow. It's where life starts!
What do you need?
- A clear glass jar
- A trowel
- A watering can if you have one
- A patch of land with soil
Step by step
Find a clear glass jar, plastic bottle or container. Collect some soil, sand, small stones, vegetable scraps and a handful of leaves.
Put layers of stones and sand at the bottom for drainage. Then put in your soil. Put vegetable scraps and leaves on top. Make sure the lid has some holes in it for air.
Time to recruit some worms for your worm stadium. You need to be really gentle with these little fellows. Find a patch of earth and pour some water over it to encourage the worms to the surface. Then very gently dig up the soil and carefully look through it with your fingers to find worms. Take care not to squash them or cut them in half.
Once you have two or three worms you can pop them in their worm stadium. Then watch them at work. If you look after them and keep the soil moist they will produce more worms. Soon as you have enough for a football team you can take them back outside to play together in the earth.
Need Help?
You should be able to find worms anywhere in damp and soft soils. If you don't have access to a garden, try in a park or near a river and look for piles of dead leaves – worms won't be far away.
You can spray some water from time to time on the top of your stadium. Adding fresh organic bits like salad will help as they contain a lot of water.
Here you go.