Darwin And Compost

  
While I am sure that, at least for British readers, the fact that 2009 is the 200th anniversary of Charles Darwin's birth and the 150th anniversary of the publication of "On The Origin Of Species" (as the BBC have been making quite a big thing of it), many of you may be unaware that today is a very special day for evolutionary biologists: Darwin Day.

Darwin was born on 12 February 1809 (hence the celebrations today). He is most famous for his theory of evolution and natural selection, but he was also a very talented geologist, and quite the polymath. While I was researching for some posts on the other blog, I came across a book that I had never heard of!

It would appear that Darwin wrote a book called The Formation of Vegetable Mould, Through the Actions of Worms, With Observations On Their Habits. Now, dear old Darwin - the only criticism I have of his writing is that he never used one word where six would do the job just as well, and his long-ass book titles are no exception. You can read the whole book online at the link I have given you, but you're probably going to need to be really, really keen, or quite an insomniac.

Darwin recognised the importance of worms in the breaking down of organic matter. This is something we rather take for granted now when we garden. We attract worms to our compost heap. Hubster goes round collecting worms to put in the heap (although he does leave one or two out for the vicious little red-breasted dinosaurs that hang out around our garden). You can buy wormeries to break down your old food and grass cuttings and paper shreddings. Worms adore cellulose. It's like Ben & Jerry's ice cream for them.

So, if you're spending this weekend turning the compost heap or mucking out the wormery, raise your cup of tea to Charlie and toast his wormy observations...