GardenDesk

Save your Easter Egg Shells for the Garden

My daughters just got finished coloring Easter Eggs for our family. Maybe you will eat an Easter Egg or two this weekend.

After you eat those traditional Easter eggs, make sure you don't throw away the egg shells.

There are several uses in the garden for eggshells. Added directly to the garden, crushed eggshells add extra calcium to the soil. Tomatoes especially love added calcium and are less likely to suffer from blossom end rot.

You can also put a layer of crushed shells around garden plants to prevent snails and slugs from eating those plants. Slugs and snails have to crawl to the plant and are unable to cross the jagged shell pieces. An egg shell barrier also deters cutworm from attacking new seedlings. Of course to surround all of your plants with egg shells, you need a whole lot of them. But when else are you able to get a lot of egg shells than at Easter time!

The only thing that some people worry about with colored eggs is putting the dye into your organic garden. I don't think this is a big problem because most dye like the Paas dye is food grade and non-toxic. I rinsed some of the dye off of today's shells with water.

 

If the color still bothers you, put the crushed eggshells in your compost bin or pile so the shells can further break down.

Here are my first Easter crushed egg shells. They kind of remind me of Fruity Pebbles!

 

I hope you enjoy all of those Easter Eggs and have a great time with family and church today and tomorrow.

Happy Easter to everyone!

- Marc

Peas don't call me the fool.... oh but maybe I am - in pictures!

Happy April Fool's Day! Unfortunately I get to celebrate April Fool's by showing you the foolish thing I did last night.

Remember my Gutter Peas?

Last night was finally time to transplant them. It started off well. First I hardened them off in the hoophouse for the past couple of days (very cold days).

Then last evening I constructed a quick PVC trellis and dug a trench where the gutter peas would be planted. 

I measured how deep and wide the trench should be with an empty piece of gutter. I'm still doing fine so far.

Next comes the exciting part where I flawlessly and gracefully slide the planted peas out of the gutter. You know, the part where the whole mass slides out in one solid piece and lands perfectly in the trench?

I removed the cardboard ends and was ready. Lifted up the gutter at an angle and slide baby slide!

And next comes the beauty shot. Here is what the peas looked like after they slid out of the gutter perfectly:

Oh no! This of course is the part where I became the April fool. My great idea didn't work very well. On the bright side, part of the peas almost stayed in place though.

So what went wrong with my gutter peas?

I think they were too dry. When you harden off seedlings, you don't water them like you did inside under lights. I should have moistened the whole gutter before sliding out the peas.

So all that was left to do was try to tuck the pea plants back in the bed, water them, attach the trellis netting and hope for the best.

Of course I'm not all that hopeful. The whole idea behind planting them in a gutter and sliding them out intact is so as to not disturb the roots. As you saw a few pictures ago, the pea plants completely popped out and exposed the roots all together. Just in case these peas do live, I covered the trellis with plastic to protect them on their first cold night.

You know, if they do bounce back it will mean that I could just sow the pea seeds in peat pots or soil blocks and transplant them individually. All the garden books say you can't do that. Maybe that's what I'll try next. What's the worse that could happen? It doesn't work and I look foolish. Oh, peas no.

Happy April 1st