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Tips from Olle Garden Bed: Wonderful Uses of Eggshells in Homes And Gardens

The eggshell is not only a useful container for nutritious yolk and egg white inside: it is a model of perfect packaging of nature. 

Eggshells are also good for us. They are made of 95% calcium carbonate, making them very similar to our own bones and teeth.

It is not surprising, then, that eggshells help strengthen our bones and protect our enamel.

If we only use shells, not throw them away!

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You may not have heard of it, but just as you can eat organic banana or lemon peel, the whole egg can also be eaten.

Eggshell is an amazing source of calcium. Only half of the eggshell can provide you with the daily recommended calcium intake. This is not only to feed the laying hens with shells, but also to take advantage of their unusual advantages, which is of practical significance.

If you keep backyard chickens, you may experience hundreds of eggs every year. Avoid these shells from entering landfills and use them in your own home and garden.

15 ingenious uses of eggshells

  1. Use eggshells to breed seedlings indoors

In the pursuit of a plastic free life and garden, it is not always easy to find a sustainable seed planting solution.

In the past, people used their yogurt containers repeatedly, but in some cases, the plastic cans would decompose and need to be thrown away/recycled.

Of course, there are also examples of peat pots, newspaper pots, gourd shells and boards as environmentally friendly planting options, although eggshells are the winners of gardens.

Fill half of the shell with soil, carefully place the seeds and wait for them to grow. To hold the eggshells in place, place them back in the eggshell carton.

When the plant is big enough, you can transplant the entire pot into the garden, where the shell will decompose to provide additional calcium for the surrounding soil.

  1. Garden covering

After having a good breakfast or baking a delicious cake, crush the eggshells and take them directly to the garden!

As they slowly decompose, they not only help aerate the soil, because they improve the flow of water, but the eggshells also release calcium over time. The finer you crush them, the faster they decompose.

  1. Use calcium supplements to nourish tomatoes.

Although you can place the eggshell directly under the tomato when transplanting tomatoes, sometimes the volunteer tomato plant of the previous season pops up, and you want to save it. Think of it as a survivor and give it some extra love and attention.

Adding calcium to tomato plants will help prevent flower tip rot (not a disease, but a physiological disorder caused by calcium imbalance).

For the same reason, eggshells are good for your pumpkins, peppers, cabbage and broccoli!

  1. Feeding eggshells to chickens

If you want to get healthy eggs from chickens, just throw the eggshells back!

Laying hens need a lot of calcium. If you find your chickens are actually eating their own eggs, it may be due to a lack of vitamins.

Dry the eggshells at room temperature, collect enough eggshells, continue to crush them gently, and then spread the eggshells on the baking tray thinly.

Bake the shells until crisp. Bake them at 275 degrees for about ten minutes, then crush some and eat a small amount.

  1. Use crushed eggshells to prevent pests in the garden

Ducks will be happy to eat slugs, but you can't always allow them in your garden.

In this case, try roughly crushing the eggshell around the base of the plant to prevent snails and slugs from devouring your lovely green vegetables.

  1. Add them to the compost

Similarly, calcium content plays a role.

To improve the quality of compost, you need to add all biodegradable substances, including eggshells. Compost heaps can reduce garbage and also help the garden.

  1. Food for wild birds

Just as you can feed your chickens, you can also give some support to wild birds.

The same process also applies: baking, then crushing the shells into bite sized pieces, then scattering the feed mixture or placing them on the ground for them to find.

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  1. Boil eggshells in coffee

This is great for two reasons.

First of all, if you make campfire coffee at high temperature, the crushed eggshell will help prevent the coffee grounds from boiling. This is not a common problem, unless you are dealing with it roughly, but now you know how to avoid destroying the coffee when this happens.

Secondly, the eggshell added to the coffee can reduce the acidity of the cup. When you experience overwhelming bitterness from a cup of cheap coffee or a pot that has been brewed for too long, eggshells can save the day.

One egg powder or finely chopped shell is enough to make 4 cups of delicious coffee.