3 Wonderful Ways Egg Shells Can Help You Today

Although we’re encouraged to recycle and compost most of our biodegradable kitchen scraps, one of the biggest and best things to keep hold of are your egg shells. Rich in nutrients and guaranteed to break down, they may be the most helpful to come out of an animal since manure.

Egg shells as a drainage aid

This is probably my favourite use for them because I’m really not a fan of keeping stones in my pots to weigh them down. Quite often, as a container, you’ll come across plants that just detest having their roots kept sitting in water. The main cause is usually poor drainage, which comes from the soil forming a seal at the bottom of your pots and preventing water from seeping through.

Crush up your used egg shells in to pieces around 1/4 of the size of the original egg and scatter them across the bottom of your containers. What this does, is give you a great way to stop water from pooling around the roots, while adding a considerable amount of essential nutrients to the soil, but keep in mind that they are only a temporary fix until you find soil with better drainage.

Egg shells as food

Contrary to popular belief, the animal and plant kingdoms can happily co-exist. Although we throw them away as waste (which I’m not going to question, unless you enjoy crunchy omelettes), they contain calcium, great for creating and maintaining healthy plant growth.

When you’re crushing your egg shells this time, get them as small as possible to speed up the breakdown and absorption in to your plants. Tomatoes, peppers and the vast majority of the solanum genus will really benefit from this and you’ll have a lot more rich foliage.

Interestingly, egg shells are ~90% calcium carbonate. For those of you who like use garden lime, you’ve just found a really inexpensive (arguably free if you buy lots of eggs anyway) source of lime.

Give your egg shells a rinse before putting them to use in your garden. Raw eggs are likely to attract a whole range of pests.

Egg shells as a pesticide

One of the biggest nightmares when growing leafy greens is waking up to a garden full of half-eaten cabbage and slime everywhere. Slugs, snails, caterpillars and the like are usually one of your greatest obstacles, but their design is also a massive flaw.

Because they have to slither along the ground with only a mucous membrane for protection, laying egg shells around your plants will stop them in their tracks. They’ll either realise how much effort it will take to get to their meal and head off elsewhere, or die trying to conquer your jagged pass.

The great thing about this, is that it encourages animals higher up the food chain to visit your garden more often as all of those lifeless slugs littering the floor are too good to miss out on. Eventually you’ll be in a situation where the predators will keep watch over your plants and eat the pests before they even get to your leaves.

Walking on eggshells needn’t be a problem for gardeners!

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...
  • http://topsy.com/trackback?utm_source=pingback&utm_campaign=L1&url=http://www.askgarden.com/3-wonderful-ways-egg-shells-can-help-you-today/ Tweets that mention garden New update: 3 Wonderful Ways Egg Shells Can Help You Today — Topsy.com

    [...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Josh. Josh said: #garden New update: 3 Wonderful Ways Egg Shells Can Help You Today http://ow.ly/17hX4e [...]

  • http://www.brochuresprintingonline.com/ Vic | printing brochures

    The last tip is very practical and smart. Using the cracked egg shells as an obstacle to block pest and attracting natural pest predators (using the pest dead casks) is a very scientific approach.

  • http://www.askgarden.com Josh

    Thanks Vic. At times it feels like a cruel science experiment, but they started it!

  • http://www.decoramould.com/ Mike@door moulding

    I was about to say “egg shells can attract bugs… lots of bugs” until I saw your disclaimer to wash them.

    I don’t thin I’d like egg shells scattered across the ground around my house though.

  • http://www.vica.as/pavillon Have Pavillon

    Great idea. It is almost an egg of Columbus – when you read it you think why haven’t I thought about it. :-)

  • http://jeges.info Orchid

    Looking of the picture on the top of your post. It’s remain me when I was child. I used to put the eggshells on that kind of plants.

  • http://www.walking-sprinkler.com Dawn @ Yard Sprinklers

    Have just planted tomatoes (it’s Spring in my corner of the world) so pleased to hear that they will love the crushed egg shell as well as them being a deterrent to snails.

    Hopefully I will end up with a surplus of tomatoes this year for bottling.

  • http://www.customfragrancelamps.com/ Fragrance Lamps

    Thanks for this post… Yeah! I do really agree that egg shells are very helpful in the garden. It is a great source of fertilizer-as what i observed in my Mom plants. Since I was young she loves to take care of different flowering plants and she usually put crushed egg shells around the plants. I always wonder why she always do that but as days passes by her plants grows faster and more healthier than usual. Then I realized that an egg is not only good for humans but its egg shells is also good for plants.

  • http://www.badcreditloans.org.uk bad credit loans

    I used to ask my mother why she is putting egg shells on our plants and she told me its purpose. She taught me also different uses of egg shells in arts…it’s great!

  • http://www.californiaduihelp.com/california_dmv/vc23152.php 23152 b

    Thanks for sharing this very informative article. I actually fond of eating eggs but don’t know that its shells can be of big help. By reading your blog, I already know its use.

  • http://www.essencepv.com/ Chicago Wedding Photographer

    I never thought that egg shells are of great help in plants. Your post is very informative and it brings awareness to everyone especially those who love to plant vegetables in their backyard. From now on I’ll put the egg shells in my garden.

  • http://www.google.com/profiles/conversiondoctor Conversion Doctor

    I have been doing this kind of practice before – making use of waste materials and turn them into something useful.

    Thanks for adding this one. I’m glad someone believe in the things I do.

  • http://www.powmac.com/ Gastonia DUI Lawyer

    I don’t know that egg shell can be used as pesticides not after reading your post. Actually, I used egg shell as a decoration in my garden. I used paint to put colors on it and decorate it around the pot. Anyway, thanks for your article.

  • http://sandiegodwi.com/ dui san diego

    I didn’t know that egg shells are useful in plants. I learn something from your post it is very informative. Now I know that egg shells are really useful. Thanks for sharing this kind of information.

  • http://www.druckedeinebilder.de/ popart

    Truly egg shells are very helpful in our lives. Like us, we use egg shells to decorate in our small garden. My sister also used egg shells in her art subject. But the most salient point about your post, I’m surprised to know that egg shells are also use as pesticide. Thanks for this information.

  • http://concretefirepit.net Backyard Fire Pit

    Thanks for a great reminder. I had completely forgotten about using eggshells to foil slugs and snails. Our garden always had lots of slugs in the spring, last year I had to plant my basil twice. I hate using slug bate, but I had to last year. This year I’ll save up the eggshells.

  • http://www.nocuffs.com/ criminal lawyer in Los Angeles

    I do really agree that egg shells are very helpful in the garden. Instead of throwing egg shells away, put them in plants because it adds valuable nutrients to soil. Crush egg shells provide calcium to our garden. Thanks for sharing this useful tips to us.

  • http://www.bristol-garden-services.com/ John Gardener

    If your household goes through a lot of eggs like mine and your garden already has plenty of eggshells, you can rinse them thoroughly, remove the inside membrane, air dry them and put into a ziplock bag. Crush them with a jam jar or rolling pin and store in the freezer until you are ready to add to your compost. They are also good as seedling starters although that will need a bit of work. Egg shells are your garden’s friends!

  • http://www.olutools.com Abi James

    Thanks so much for the info. I have always wondered if there can’t be any other useful applications for egg shells. I used to keep chickens some years ago and one of the ways we used to add calcium to the feed of the chicken was to use grounded egg shells. I think I will implement your slug deterrent advice. Its really cool. Cheers

  • http://www.navisiondepot.com Dynamics Nav

    Another use for egg shells — crush them, soak them in water, then use the water to water pepper plants — not sure why, but it makes the pepper grow faster and set fruit faster.  Very neat!