This fall I read an article about collecting eggshells and reusing them to garden. The article touted their usefulness in the garden, for everything from fertilizer to organic pest control. This spring, I’m planning on building a garden for Mrs Siegel using crushed eggshells in the garden several ways:

How to start 

How many eggs to you use during the fall and winter? All the cooking I figured over a 100 eggs easy. During the winter, I have been saving the shells from all the eggs we ate by simply rinsing them and placing them in an open container where they could dry out. (they did not smell. Everyone who comes to my house and saw them asked me this question.) After my containers are full, I will spend some time pulverizing them into little bits with wooden spoons, thus compacting the shells so that I could collect more.

Eggshell Fertilizer

Healthy plants and vegetables are easier to cultivate when tilled into the soil, ground eggshells provide your plants with calcium.

Though nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium are most vital for healthy growth, calcium is also essential for building healthy “bones”—the cell walls of a plant. Composed of calcium carbonate, eggshells are an excellent way to introduce this mineral into the soil. To prep the eggshells, grind with a mixer, grinder, or mortar and pestle and till them into the soil. Because it takes several months for eggshells to break down and be absorbed by a plant’s roots, it is recommended that they be tilled into the soil in fall. More shells can be mixed into your soil in the spring.

By the same token, finely crushed shells mixed with other organic matter at the bottom of a hole will help newly planted plants thrive. (Tomatoes especially love calcium.) For an exciting recycled garden cocktail: try mixing your eggshells with coffee grounds, which are rich in nitrogen.

Finally, eggshells will reduce the acidity of your soil, and will help to aerate it.

Eggshell Seed Starters

Want to start a garden early and maybe teach your kids some small level of responsibility with education mixed in! 

Egg shell garden start ups! Because egg shells are biodegradable, eggshells make excellent, no-waste seed starters. For this, reserve some of your deeper shell halves. Sterilize the shelves by boiling them or by placing them in a 200 degree oven for 30 minutes. (If you put them in a cooling oven after, say, you baked a roast chicken, you can sterilize eggs without using excess energy.)

Next, with a nail or awl, make a hole in the bottom for drainage. Add soil and seeds according to the packaging. When sprouts appear, plant them—egg and all—right into the soil. You can start whenever you want just when the plants start growing you need to transplant them to allow continued growth. Again just another level of education, responsibility, eco-friendliness and house hold costs down. 

Eggshell Pest Control

Now if you live on Long Island you could very well have a deer in your yard - beautiful as they are I have heard many a story of them "EATING MY PLANTS!" A coating of crushed eggshells in the garden is said to help deter several pests, both large and small. Deer dislike the smell of the albumen and will stay away. Apparently you can also use egg’s insides to deter deer. Be aware, however, that though deer hate the smell of eggs, rodents love it. Therefore, it may not be best to use this deterrent near the house 

Eggshell Bird Food

Like plants and people, birds also benefit from a bit a calcium in their diet, especially the females who need extra before and after laying their eggs. To make bird food, start by sterilizing the shells by leaving them in a cooling oven after you bake a meal. Then crush them into fine bits and mix with your favorite seed.