When I got my european nightcrawlers they were tiny too; I dug out about 2 feet of soil in 3 of my basement window wells and replaced it with shredded newspaper and peat moss and lightly layered in about 5-10 percent of the original soil; put in the european nightcrawlers and in about 8 months the wells were just full of adult and young worms. They do get plenty big enough for the garter and fishing. Somehow some frogs got into the wells and now I have several of them living happily there with all the food they could ever need. They fat.