6 Cool Things Eggshells Are Good For Posted on September 10th, 2009
Eggshells. One of nature’s greatest feats of protective packaging. One the package is opened and you’ve consumed the egg inside, though, what do you do with that shell?
Well, one of the things that makes eggshells so nearly perfect is their after market uses. Here’s half a dozen of the best ones that I use them for regularly:
1 – Compost them. This one is the most obvious and probably the second most common thing for the empty shells to end up becoming (next to just landfill). Eggshells are a rich source of calcium and mineral supplements to your compost. To speed up the breaking-down process, crush the shells.
Many old-timers would dry the shells thoroughly, saving the powder until they had a quantity of it, and then spread it over a field or pasture and let it “soak” into the soil. This ads rich calcium to the soil and plant life and makes for excellent grazing pasture once it’s been integrated into the soil.
2 – De-bitter your coffee. If you hate bitter morning coffee, you can use an eggshell to make it less so. Just put a chunk of an eggshell to the coffee grounds in most any kind of coffee maker (obviously, this doesn’t work with instant coffee). The shell absorbs some of the acids in coffee that make it bitter. Plus, when you’re done, the paper filter, grounds, and shell are perfect additions to your compost.
3 – Slug and snail barriers. Those who live in an area where snails and slugs are common garden or flower bed pests will love this one. Crushed eggshells are great barriers to keep those slimy ones out of your garden. Just crush the shells and create a thin barrier by spreading them in a line around your garden or flower beds. The sharp fragments deter the slimies.
4 – Natural source of calcium. You can’t eat eggshells directly, of course. Well, not without having to go in for major surgery to have the shards removed from your throat, anyway. You can, however, still get the benefits of these rich calcium sources. Eggshells will dissolve in apple cider vinegar (which is also very good for you) in a few days. Just put a shell into a glass or container of cider vinegar and leave it to dissolve. When it’s completely gone, drink the whole shebang in stages and reap the rewards of health!
5 – Arts and crafts. You can use eggshells for all kinds of cool arts and crafts. A common practice called “blowing out” the inside of the egg by puncturing a small hole in the bottom of the shell and using a coffee straw to “blow” the egg back through the hole leaves you with an intact shell, emptied and ready for use. These are often painted, decorated, or even used as molds for chocolate, Jell-O, and other treats.
6 – Seedling starters. If you crack your eggs high so that you have a tall “cup” left of the shell, these make for great seed starters that are natural, safe, and biodegradable. Take the shells and put them back into the egg carton, open side up. Fill with planting soil, put in the seeds, and wait. When the seedlings come up, you can easily remove the whole eggshell container to transplant. Rather than removing the plant and soil from the “pot,” you can just bust up the eggshell and put it into the ground with the plant and starter soil.
Those are some of my favorite uses for eggshells, nature’s most awesome product packaging. What are your uses for them? Let me know below!
Update on the “Hydroponics” Experiment Posted on August 18th, 2009
I may have mentioned it before, but I don’t think I’ve gone into any detail on our hydroponics experiments here at our house.
We had several tomato plants in our garden this year. Attrition took down two of them and another was the victim of an over-zealous cat in the garden box. That one broke off at the base and was lying on its side when we noticed it. We tried leaving it in place and just propping it up to secure it into place so the stem could grow back together, but were apparently too late as the plant began to wither noticeably.
It was decided that it needed to come inside or be thrown away. I thought it would be a great chance to try something out I’d been wanting to see in action, so the little tomato plant was placed in a jar of water.
Sure enough, a few days later tiny root sprouts could be seen and within a week, we had half-inch long roots coming from the bottom of the stem. So nutrient solution was added to the water, a straw was put in to aerate it (by blowing) occasionally, and the experiment took off.
The little plant never grew much and is half-withered all of the time, probably because a permanent aeration was not given to it. The water is plain tap water and nutrients are added as simple organic garden feed mixed into the water directly. Just a few sprinkles here and there. The plant is occasionally removed from the water so the container can be emptied and cleaned and the roots are rinsed to remove algae and other growths.
Optimally, I would have chosen a darkened jar to cut down the algae, but my inquisitive mind wanted to see results, so a clear Kerr jar was used to make for easy monitoring.
As you can see here, the little plant is producing two small tomatoes that will be ripe and ready in the next few days! Normally, at this stage, the plant would be about two feet tall. It measures around ten inches right now, so it’s less than half it’s expected size.
Obviously, there are a lot of things that could have been done differently, but this is an example of how this can work.
Here’s what should have been done differently to make for a much healthier plant:
- A wider, shallower container with netting or media (like fish tank rocks) in it for plant rooting.
- More controlled, easier nutrient solution mix, like liquid nutrients from the garden store.
- Shallower water at just the level of the roots so the plant can naturally aerate.
- Dark-colored container to fend off algae.
Sometime soon, possibly this winter, I plan to start a full-on hydroponics system for indoor growing. That will, of course, be detailed here as it happens.
How do your hydroponics experiments or anything like what we did here work out? Any stories? Let me know by commenting below! Hey, that rhymed.
Some Advantages & Disadvantages to Consider When Looking At Hybrids Vs. Heirloom Vegetables Posted on August 13th, 2009
When you look at heirloom vegetables versus some of the hybrids available today, you have a lot to consider. Both are organic and offer the same basic nutrition of the vegetable type you’re looking at. Some purists will insist that the heirlooms taste better, but in my experience the difference between one or the other is a matter of, well, taste.
The biggest differences between hybrids and heirlooms is in the qualities of each. An heirloom is a seed type handed down for generations while a hybrid is one that was two plants cross-pollinated to combine the most desirable traits of each plant. Both are natural plants, of course, to all but the most stringent of fundamentalist gardeners.
Some advantages of each are worth noting. Let’s look at the advantages of both heirlooms and hybrids and then compare.
Here are some of the advantages that heirlooms have over hybrids:
- You can save the seeds and grow new ones every year, every time.
- Most heirloom variety seeds are cheaper than their hybrid counterparts.
- Natural variety between plants creates non-uniform harvest and sizes, allowing for mixed bag harvesting.
- They have a great history that can be learned and retold.
These are some pretty compelling reasons to pick heirlooms. The first reason is a solid no-brainer if you’re an organic gardener, grower, or farmer who prefers to do things on the cheap. It also has the advantage of allowing your operation to be basically self-contained. The second reason plays into those thoughts.
Seasoned gardeners will appreciate the third reason, since plentiful harvests are great, but not all at once. Variety in what’s coming in (“mixed bag” harvesting) and a lack of uniformity for harvest times can really make the gardener’s life easier.
That fourth reason is great fun and a real family-oriented reason to choose heirlooms. Especially if your family has a long history of gardening (as mine does).
Now let’s consider what hybrids offer:
- Bigger harvests and generally lower seed attrition (more plants per seed pack).
- Often hardier, more pest and disease resistant plants.
- Interesting variety of plants available, with unique properties and uses.
- Uniform harvest times and yields.
The first reason may mean that the seeds are actually on par (cost-wise) with their heirloom counterparts. There can be a difference of up to 25% in the number of seeds planted versus those that sprout, in favor of hybrids.
The second reason is aimed directly at new gardeners and at those who don’t have a lot of time to care for their gardens. Many varieties of hybrid are specifically bred to be more resistant to problems and require less care. The fourth reason plays into this same group of people, since uniform harvests and harvest times mean easier planning for the event so you can devote a weekend to a particular crop yield, for instance.
The third reason plays into this as a definite bonus for the gardener or family who easily tires of one type of crop all of the time. Especially those who enjoy fresh off the vine eating.
Obviously, both hybrids and heirlooms have advantages worth considering for your gardening plans. I personally like to use both in our garden. I prefer hybrid tomatoes, for instance, because of the available variety and relative ease of care in growing them. Some heirloom varieties, however, are definitely more succulent (at least to me).
Burpee Burpless Cukes From This Year's Garden
For other vegetables, I have mixed likes and dislikes of a similar vein. I’m a big fan of the Burpee Burpless variety of cucumbers, for instance, because I can eat them all day without getting gas (wow, that makes me sound like an old man..) and I love fresh cucumbers. I prefer heirloom green loose leaf Canadian lettuce, however, because it has broad, tasty leaves and seems to last longer into the winter than other varieties I’ve tried.
Part of the fun of gardening is trying all of the different options available and seeing what you prefer and don’t like. Since seeds can be saved almost indefinitely if you keep them under the right conditions, it doesn’t hurt to buy several packets of different types and just plant a few of each and see which you like best.
After a couple of years of comparison, you can start to get an idea of which ones seem to be working for you.
Every year, I try at least one new variety of heirloom or hybrid to see what it’s like. This year, for instance, we tried a 3-part lettuce hybrid that grows green and red leaf lettuce plus a bitter kale in one plant. I honestly didn’t like it much, but I gave it a shot, which was the point.
What are you favorites? Let me know!
5 Simple Ways to Save Money in a Recession Posted on August 12th, 2009
From my friend Shelly Roche at Bytestyle.tv comes this great video. Visit the page it’s from to read the 5 things in detail and more great suggestions from commenters.
Planning The Fall Garden – Now Is the Time! Part II Posted on August 4th, 2009
In Part I we talked about knowing when to set up your seeds and how long you can expect before your first Killing Frost. Now we’ll continue with that and talk about soil preparation and dealing with pests. Then we’ll wrap up the two parts with a short summary.
Preparing the Soil for Fall Crops
It’s likely that you’ll have started those seeds for the fall crops right about the time your summer crops are coming in. So it will be busy. Seed starting isn’t difficult, though, so you probably got it done alright. Now that they’re little starters and you’re ready to transplant them into their garden home, you’ll need to make sure that home is ready to receive them.
This is mostly just adding to the soil to beef it up a little and give it one more boost of energy.
Tea from your compost is the best. Sprinkle the tea over the soil before planting or after transplanting. Either way is fine in this case. If you wait until after transplanting, wait at least 2 or 3 days for those plants to begin adjusting before you pour on the tea. Throw the other bits of compost back onto the pile with the freshly-pulled plants you’ve removed from the garden for fall.
If you don’t have any compost to tea, spread manure or compost over the newly-bared soil in a light layer (maybe an inch). Don’t worry about turning the soil or anything, that will actually do more harm than good. Just transplant directly through the new layer of compost/manure.
For more on compost, click here. I’ll be talking about compost tea in an upcoming article as well.
Row Em Up
Like with your summer garden, you can time your planting so that you’ll not be harvesting everything all at once. Make sure you know the grow time for each of them and plant accordingly. Cabbages, rutabagas, etc. take longer than beets or carrots to mature. So start with those longer-growing ones and plant the faster ones later.
Last come the extremely winter-hardy plants like spinach. In many climates, these can even be running strong into the Christmas season.
Of course, the other trick here is to plan out your rows so they’re more densely productive. Where I live, the best way to make good neighbors is to bring them fresh cuts from the garden. It’s easier than pie and much healthier.
The Pests Are Coming! The Pests Are Coming!
While some of the pests I’m talking about have red coats, many do not. This is the time of year when crickets, grasshoppers, and other destructive nasties come through and can seriously wreak havoc on your garden.
There are a lot of ways to combat them, of course. Here are a couple that you may not have heard of. I’ll list many more in a later, more detailed article, but here are the big ones: diatomaceous earth and chickens.
Whatever method you choose, make sure you’re prepared because the insects are coming. Fall is their heyday for plant destruction, so be ready.
The Fall Garden Sum-Up
So here’s what you need to do to make sure your fall garden is as productive as possible. This gives you the most for the least and means you’ll be eatin’ good all winter, if you do it right!
- Know Your Killing Frost Date
- Start Your Seeds In Time
- Prepare the Soil
- Be Ready for the Pests
That pretty much covers it. If you have any favorites for your fall garden, any tips to ad to this, or a question to ask, do so in the comments! I’m happy to help out. If you’d prefer to remain anonymous, of course, that’s fine. Email addresses in the commentary aren’t published or used for anything but verification, so no worries.
