As my Green Phone Booth name suggests, I love composting. But there is one item that I never put into my backyard compost bin; egg shells
We save every single egg shell that we generate and now I have a fairly sizable bag. I have read many blog posts on the multiple uses of egg shells, such as growing seedlings in them, and using for a calcium boost in smoothies. I use them in two particular ways for gardening.
- I crush egg shells and scatter them around my young plants to protect them from snails and slugs.
- I grind them up and use them as a calcium supplement for my tomato plants.
Tomatoes are prone to a problem known as blossom end rot, which is when the bottom on the tomato, where the blossom was originally, begins to rot. This is due to a calcium deficiency, which eggs shells can alleviate.
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| Tomatoes with blossom end rot resulting from calcium deficiency. Image source link |
