Did you know that egg shells are useful in your garden?
They sure are!
You can:
- Sprinkle rinsed and crushed egg shells around young plants to deter slugs and other soft bodied pests. The sharp edges aren’t very comfy to crawl across!
- Add rinsed egg shells to your compost pile. You can crush them but even if you don’t, the earthworms seem to love them! If you have a worm bin, you can add crushed eggshells to your bin for your wigglers.
- Add egg shells to your garden and pots. Finely ground eggshells provide a little bit of calcium to your soil over time.
Here’s how to grind eggshells for the garden:
Rinse and dry shells
Place into food processor or blender.
Whiz away!
Store in a jar until you need it.
Shell particles should be ground very fine to really add calcium into the soil.
If your machine can’t grind particles that small, don’t worry!
You can still sprinkle your “rough” ground shells around plants like lavender and other plants that like alkaline soil or a bit of lime (which is calcium in the form of ground limestone).
In areas where blossom end rot is a problem, tomatoes, peppers and eggplant all appreciate a little extra calcium at planting time… and an occasional side dressing during the growing season. Do be aware that even ground egg shells can take a long time to break down, so don’t count on them working miracles right away.
Except when it comes to deterring slugs.
Via: Gardening 101