As a passionate advocate of food insecurity, I always am looking for ways to reduce waste in my kitchen and reuse any scraps I have. This means using leftover rice to make rice pudding, bones for bone broth, soft fruit and veggies get juiced or made into jams. Egg shells are packed calcium making them a perfect food for your garden plants. While most of us toss our egg shells away, organic gardeners know that they are a great addition to any garden.
Saving egg shells are easy, I will keep them in a glass container in the fridge until I have a full container or I will toss them in a container in the freezer to keep until I am ready to plant. When it’s time to garden I like to blend or crush egg shells with a little leftover coffee grounds and you have a great organic fertilizer your plants will love. I sprinkle this powder around the base of the plant and then water them, as usual, you love it.
You can also just stir them into your potting soil and add it to pots on your deck of into your garden. The egg shells in the soil create a slow-release fertilizer to the soil which will break down and feed them for weeks to come. Finally, they can replace some chemicals by being a natural deterrent to bugs instead of chemical sprays that can get onto your plants and into your soil. Blend the egg shells less so you have a more rough and sharp barrier to create around the base of the plant. Bugs like slugs and snails so not want to climb over the sharp edges and therefore stay clear of your delicate plants.
So instead of throwing away egg shells, use them in your garden to enhance the health of your soil and plants. Do you have other natural gardening tips? I would love to hear about them, send me a note in the comment below. Happy Planting! XO Jo