Lack of earthworms was the wake up call for me to start organics. After a portion of my front lawn died, I dug up some patches and didn't find any critters whatsoever. I'm now in my second year and I find worm throughout my lawn and gardens.

Coming up on the end of year two, here. There were no visible worms anywhere before (well, few, and I named them Mary and Joe, although Pat and Jamie would be more accurate), now they're everywhere--although I only see the casting piles and holes, rarely any worms. I don't dig much.

does anyone here aerate anymore?

Not I, no. It doesn't need it any more.

Coming up on the start of year two and I have noticed a huge difference in the worm population in the gardens. I don't know about the grass since I don't want to dig any of it up to check, but I assume they're there is they're even heavy in some poor soil that I don't do anything with. Even my neighbor noticed a lot more worms this spring.

Hmm rereading this something did come to mind that happened RIGHT after I used organic grains for the first time (soybeans). I had a swarm of millipedes everywhere! Which you might think would be not so great until looking a little deeper at what they do. They are classified as "shredder" arthropods meaning they take organic material and break it up into smaller pieces. This could be anything from thatch to dead grass to I suppose the soybean meal. Over time their populations subsided a bit but hopefully by the end of the season I have a healthy population of both millipedes and earthworms. I suppose it gave my lawn the illusion of being greener as it was much harder to find blades of dead grass.

I had a lot more earthworms, wolf spiders and roly pollies after 2 years. I just didn't expect to find so many earthworms in my rocky soil.

had a swarm of millipedes everywhere! Which you might think would be not so great until looking a little deeper at what they do. They are classified as "shredder" arthropods meaning they take organic material and break it up into smaller pieces.

Thank you for that, because the millipedes last year in April looked like they were trying to invade. Call it a hundred times normal numbers (normal in a non-organic lawn, anyway).

I'd not realized they actually had jobs that mattered to me before.

wait, so are roly polies (sowbugs/pillbugs) good? i have them EVERYWHERE and i thought they were bad if you had too many.

Earthworms, millipedes, pill bugs, etc. need organic matter to live on and the lack of them is one indication of poor soil. An abundance of one or another is an indication of an unbalanced ecosystem, not necessarily bad but something that happens when people switch from a system that is harmful to our world to one that is more beneficial. Until your ecosystem balances, and it will, you can see fairly large populations of various insects that may appear to be out of control, but that will balance as your soil improves. Earthworms take time to build up, but as the environment they live in improves with the addition of sufficient levels of organic matter they will increase in number.

We also have lots more earthworms. And also, I was shocked to see MANY, MANY dead earthworms on my neighbors sidewalks and driveway after they treated their lawn this spring - what is up with that? Was curious what they used, but couldn't think of a non-offensive way to ask.