Did you know that the egg shells you have been throwing away can be quite beneficial to your garden? According to an article I read at askgarden.com, egg shells are actually high in calcium carbonate, which is what you pay money for when you buy lime to lower your garden's acidity. All of the plants in your garden thrive from the calcium in your dirt and quickly gobble up this nutrient so adding egg shells is a free option to improve your garden's potential. I have yet to find anyone on the internet that denies the benefits of egg shells so I am intrigued.
There are many recommendations floating around the internet on how to prepare your shells. I like the idea of cooking them in the oven until they are brittle. The temperature should kill any lingering salmonella and make the shells easier to grind. A mortar and pestle is a nice tool for the grinding. Just add your shells and grind away while you are watching TV.
The shells can also be used to keep slugs and snails away from your plants. The bugs that must slither across the ground become cut up from the sharp shells and either die or leave. I love this idea because I refuse to spray my plants with any type of pesticide. I would rather lose a plant from bugs than feed my family poison. Just add the shell pieces to the top layer of your garden and reapply as needed.
I will be testing out the egg shells this year in my garden and in my seedling dirt. I am curious to see if my seedlings grow any better with the addition of egg shells.
Let me know if you have had success with egg shells in your garden.
http://www.askgarden.com/3-wonderful-ways-egg-shells-can-help-you-today/
Considering all the FREE eggs we get from our chickens (wait a minute, how free are they when I'm buying Purina layer feed??) I will start keeping the egg shells to add to our garden!
ReplyDeleteHmm. I didn't see where there was a suggestion to cook them in the oven first? I've rinsed mine. I think I'll put them in a baggie and them just take the rolling pin to them for the crushing part.
ReplyDeleteAlso, I've seen where folks have cracked their eggs carefully so they can use the egg shells as miniature "pots" to plant seedlings in. Then the whole eggshell can go into the ground when the plant is ready!