Whenever I cook or use up the eggs that are in my refrigerator, I always make sure to save the shells so that I can use them again for one of these many garden-specific applications. It doesn’t seem to take long to accumulate a huge baking sheet of eggshells that I can then bake to dry and clean.
Consider these tips for using eggshells, and implement them in your garden this spring.
#1. Fertilizer
Ground eggshells serve as a fantastic source of calcium for your plants. While you can put them into the soil or toss them out into your garden whole, it may be more effective for you to dry and grind them first.
This will help keep any scavenging pests away and also allow them to break down more quickly, releasing their nutrients back into the soil more rapidly.
Most people don’t realize this, but many soil types are deficient in calcium. This is especially true if your soil has been exposed to extensive tilling or has seen lots of cultivation in the last few years.
Calcium is vital for building healthy cell walls in a plant – which are essentially the “bones” of the organism. Plants need calcium for these cell wall s just as we need calcium for our bones!
Eggshells decompose quickly because they have a high surface area to volume ratio. To add eggshells to your soil, you don’t have to dry them first or even grind them up – although keep in mind that ground eggshells will break down more quickly.
While you can till calcium into the soil at any time during the planting season, there are two best times to add eggshells to your garden. The first is when you’re planting in the spring.
Simply grind up your eggshells into a fine powder, and then place them at the bottom of the hole before you plant. This will help all of your plants, but particularly tomatoes, thrive. You can even mix your eggshells with coffee grounds, which provide lots of nitrogen. Together, the two pack a powerful dose of plant-boosting nutrients.
You can also add eggshells in the fall or in the spring in their whole forms, but remember that they will take longer to break down. In addition to providing your soil with lots of calcium, eggshells can also reduce the acidity of your soil and provide a nice aerating effect – a must if you have heavy, compacted soils.
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