Using Eggshells in the Garden

Survival At Home
by Survival At Home
Eggs are pretty commonplace in just about everyone’s kitchen. You use them for baking, as binders in casseroles, and as a staple breakfast item. You can eat eggs fried, scrambled, as omelettes, boiled, poached… I think you get the picture. So what do you do with all those eggshells? Some people just throw them into the compost pile – which is perfectly fine. Other people throw them away. If you throw your eggshells away, I urge you to stop! Especially if you grow your own veggies. You can use those eggshells in the garden and bypass the trash and the compost pile.
Eggs are pretty commonplace in just about everyone’s kitchen. You use them for baking, as binders in casseroles, and as a staple breakfast item. You can eat eggs fried, scrambled, as omelettes, boiled, poached… I think you get the picture. So what do you do with all those eggshells? Some people just throw them into the compost pile – which is perfectly fine. Other people throw them away. If you throw your eggshells away, I urge you to stop! Especially if you grow your own veggies. You can use those eggshells in the garden and bypass the trash and the compost pile.
I like to rinse the shells and then dry them in the oven... but I don’t want to waste power just on the eggshells. So I wait until I’ve used the oven, then when I turn it off, I pop the eggshells onto a pan and put them in the oven as it cools. The residual heat helps sterilize and dry the eggshells completely. You could also put them into the oven as you’re preheating it to cook something. Any way it goes, you’re not using excess power to run the oven just for the purpose of drying and sterilizing eggshells.
Once the shells are completely dry, I’ll put them into a container to accumulate. Once I have about a dozen or so, it’s time to pulverize them! You can use a variety of tools to do this job – I personally use a mini chopper (because that’s what I have readily available). A dozen eggshells makes about 1/3 cup pulverized, depending on how fine you crush them. With my mini chopper, they don’t completely reduce to powder – it’s mostly just small shards of shell and a little powder.
Learn more about using eggshells in the garden, why you should do it, and how to get started at http://survivalathome.com/using-eggshells-in-the-garden/
Survival At Home
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  • Jo Jo on Jun 05, 2016
    I rinse the shells out and then put them in the sun on the back porch. After about 10 days I place them all in a plastic container and pulverize them with a rock. Then just sprinkle it around my plants.
  • Ann Amanda Brouillard Ann Amanda Brouillard on Sep 20, 2016
    I put the shells in my tomato plants but the bluejays flock in and take them. I have even seen them eat them. Very strange
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    • Claire Websdale Claire Websdale on Sep 21, 2016
      let them dry. Then grind in coffee grinder. The idea also is that snails don't like going over the sharp edges of shells to get at those precious tomator plants. Grinding them - they don't look so horrible laying around the garden. Mulching them into the soil also keeps the garden looking better.
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