Don't Trash Those Eggshells! Why You Should Save Them and How to Prepare Them

Eggshells can be used for a variety of things (you can even eat them!) but they are especially a fantastic fertilizer for your garden! 

Most notably, eggshells are packed with calcium. In addition to calcium, they are also rich in magnesium, phosphorus, potassium, and sodium! All of which are fantastic minerals for pumping up your plants! According to NutritionData, 1/2 teaspoon of crushed eggshell provides 90% of your daily calcium intake.  That's quite a large percentage for such a small amount! 

When I made my pallet garden I just used cheap soil from Ollie's so I knew I'd need to supplement my plants a bit. I made a worm farm as well but a more immediate solution is crushing eggshells and spreading them around my plants!

So instead of throwing your eggshells into the trash can, save them in a bowl and let them dry out. You could also just toss them into your compost or worm bin but if you want pure eggshell to sprinkle on your garden, follow the next easy steps. 

Let them sit for a while so they're completely dry. You can even take the time to rinse each piece to get all of the slimy whites out but it's not necessary. Unless you plan on ingesting them. If you plan to do that you need to completely wash out the whites. For your garden you just want them dry. I've never had an issue with bugs being attracted to the bowl so that shouldn't be a problem. 

Next, dump them into your blender! 

Blend them until they're thoroughly crushed. 

I told you it was easy. 

Now just store them in a jar until you're ready to spread them around your plants! This jar probably has about 2 dozen crushed eggshells in it. 

I sprinkled some of the crushed eggshell around all of my plants. Here you see it on my lettuce blend when they first sprouted. They're doing great now! I'm about ready to thin them out. 

Jill over at The Prairie Homestead has a great list of 30+ Things to Do With Eggshells so go check that out for more ideas!

What other uses for eggshell do you know of? Would you ever eat them?

Till next time,

Catherine

My Wee Strawberry Plant

Around early April we bought 4 roma tomato plants and one strawberry plant from a local greenhouse. I picked the best strawberry plant I could find and it already had 3 little strawberries growing! 

This is what they looked like the week we bought the plant. 

And after maybe 5-6 weeks they were getting huge! 

Then after close to 7 weeks out, I managed to pluck this beauty at the perfect time! I was like a little kid I was so excited! Way too excited about one measly strawberry! 

 This little guy was delicious! I must have waited till the right time because it was so good!

But alas, just one strawberry at a time is not very filling. I've decided I need about 99 more strawberry plants.

Since that's not very practical, I'm thinking just 3-5 more plants would be a good deal. At least with that many we can have a handful now and then.

Looking at these pictures reminds me that there's one more that's just about ready to eat! Yum!

What fruit are you growing in your garden? What's your favorite fruit? 

Till next time,
Catherine

Foraging

Ok that title may be a little deceptive. Over my busy weekend in Richmond, I spent some quality time with my mom and part of that involved walking my parents' property. 

It started because I was looking through my dad's collection of veggie seeds and I found a couple of old big bags of flower seed mixes. My mom and I decided to spread them outside in hopes of some pretty blooms over the summer. 

We ventured through the path in the woods down to the garden, spreading the wildflower seed bag along the path. I found a four-leaf clover (it got cut off the bottom of the picture) while my mom got a little harvest of asparagus. My dad hasn't had a chance to start the garden up for the year so that asparagus was just some that popped up from last year! I love a garden that produces year round!

So we walked through the garden for a bit, looking for asparagus and trying to identify any other odd plants. I pulled off some stems of an asparagus plant that had gone to seed (far left) and I'm going to let it dry out and collect the seeds.

The middle plant is a bunch of wild green onions. I don't know much about them but that I've always considered them a weed. I've never heard that they're harmful to eat so we picked a bunch and my mom said they'd try them in salads. But hey, if they taste good, weed shmeed! It's free food!

The purple flowers are what we call money plant but they're also called honesty or the silver dollar plant. You can't see any of the seed pods in the picture but they are round and flat, hence the name. They spread pretty quickly but are really pretty. If nothing else, I think they're a really cool plant to gift to someone. 

The far right is some ivy that was growing near the woods so I dug it up too. I love ivy! 

Picking all this just got me excited for when I'll be able to harvest my little patio garden! Can't wait!

Have you ever picked and eaten wild onion? Do you consider it a weed or a veggie?

Till next time,

Catherine

DIY: Worm Farm

In addition to my lovely pallet garden that we made last week, we also made a worm composting farm to partner up with our mini garden! This is something I've been wanting to try for a while now but I didn't want to start it until the temperature would be staying above freezing. 

Growing up out in the country, we always recycled everything and we always composted food scraps. Tossing food into the trash can was a huge no-no. Since being married it kills me to throw food in the trash can...it just seems so wrong. Now that we have hungry little composters, no more food will be wasted! Well, except dairy and meat of course. That stuff is no good for worms. 

I think I originally saw this idea on Pinterest but I can't remember for sure. I have an entire list of references at the bottom of the post so you can see all the awesome bloggers/vloggers who helped me figure this project out. 

All you need is:

• 3 large plastic bins (anywhere from 10 gallon to 18 gallon)
• A drill and drill bits
• Newspaper (no shiny stuff)
• Cardboard/old egg cartons
• Coconut coir or peat moss
• 500-1000 Red Wriggler Worms

Directions:

Gather your bins. I found two 10 gallon totes and one 14 gallon tote that fit together perfectly. 

This is how they'll fit together when I'm done. The top layer will house the worms and the scraps. The middle layer is for extra bedding but also for swapping when the top layer is full. The bottom layer is for the "worm tea" which is the liquid that drains from the compost. It's extremely beneficial for plants so don't toss it out!

The reason I bought two smaller bins and one larger bins is so that the bins with the compost in them will be elevated from the liquid in the bottom. You can get three bins of the same size but you will need to add a couple bricks or large rocks to elevate the top bins. Make sense?

I  had a couple of cardboard egg cartons so I ripped them into small pieces for more bedding for the wormies.

Brand new drill bit set and a drill that my aunt and uncle bought for us as a wedding gift! The drill set was only $14 on sale at Lowe's! 

One of the tutorials I watched highly recommended using coconut coir as bedding because it is pH balanced. Home Depot and Lowe's had them but I would have had to buy large bricks of it and I knew I wouldn't need that much. I found this planter liner at a local nursery for only $3. I'm sure you can find them in most nurseries and greenhouses. 

Newspaper too! These guys need a good foundation. 

Don't forget to paint a colorful sign on the side and be sure to paint it like a 7 year old would. Wait, I think that's just me. 

Get your drill bits out. We used a 1/8" bit for the sides and 1/4" for the bottoms. 

Start by drilling holes all around the top sides of the bins. There's no formula here. Just drill a ton of holes for ventilation! The size of the holes also isn't precise. I used a smaller bit for the sides to hopefully avoid any flying bugs invading the bin.

Drill these side holes in both of the top bins. Do not drill any holes in the bottom bin! 

 Now drill holes in the bottoms of the bins. Be sure to drill holes in the depressions where liquid is more likely to collect. 

Now lay a piece of newspaper in the bottom of the middle bin. This is just extra caution because I was worried the worms might fall into the bottom bin. They shouldn't do that though. 

I put some soil on top of it so that if they make it down to the middle bin they have something to live in and won't dry out before making their way back to the top. 

In the top bin, where the worms will go, I shredded some coconut coir fiber and added just regular potting soil. 

Then I added the torn cardboard. 

And shredded newspaper. 

Then I wet it all down. You want your bedding to stay moist but not soaked. The worms will try to escape if there is too much moisture. 

Now it's time to add your worms! I bought mine from Uncle Jim's Worm Farm. I received mine in about 3 days. They ship worms out on Mondays and it usually takes about 2-3 days so plan accordingly. You want your worm bin ready when they arrive. 

There they are! Wait...where are there?

I see a few of them. 

There they are! They were all clumped together after their long journey. They are shipped in dry peat moss so gently pour about 1/2-1 cup of water over them so they can return to normal. One resource I read said that you should give them 48 hours to settle in before feeding them. I gave them more than a day. I think they should have at least 24 hours to rest and get used to their new surroundings before bombarding them with work.

Their first meal consisted of coffee grounds and a banana peel! That's all I had at the time but they've gotten more goodies since. 

Side note: Starbucks gives away used coffee grounds for FREE so stop by and ask for some for your worm bin or compost pile! Waste not!

There you have it...an easy and cheap worm composting bin for your home! I'll write another post soon about the care and upkeep of your worm farm!

References: 

• How to Make a Worm Farm-Video
• 
  
• Maintaining Your Worm Farm-Video
• 
  
• How to Make a Worm Composting Bin-Video***
• 
  
• DIY Worm Bin for Under $20-Video
• 
  
• Worms and Stuff-YouTube Channel
• 
  
• Create a DIY Worm Compost Bin-Queen Bee Coupons Blog
• 
  
• Worm Bin Composting-Entire website dedicated to worm bins. ***Same lady
•  
• Uncle Jim's Worm Farm-Worm buying resource, where I got my worms. They even have coupon codes available!

Does your family compost? Wouldn't it be nice to toss scraps to the worms instead of letting them stink up the trash can?

Till next time,

Catherine

Container Potato Plant Update

Several months ago I read that potatoes do really well in container gardens and I just knew it was something I wanted to try! I posted about my beginning ventures HERE. My potatoes were growing really well for a couple of months. At one point there were three different sprouts (even though I only planted two sprouted potato halves) and one of them even got over 2 feet tall! 

Well, I finally decided it was warm enough outside to put the plants on the patio (AKA: concrete slab, but patio sounds nicer) and then the tallest one died! I'm not sure if it dried out too quickly or maybe it got too cold one night. Either way, it's wilted and sad. I gave up hope of it bouncing back.

I gave in and dug it up to see if anything was underneath and lo and behold!

A tiny tater!!!! Ask my husband, I was WAY too excited about such a little potato!

But I grew it! With my own two hands I planted it and cared for it and it grew! 

I know it's not much, but I'm thrilled. I'm even more excited to see what else is under the dirt!!

This is what's left. This plant is over a foot tall and appears to be doing well. After taking this picture I decided to replant the one I dug up...just in case it wasn't quite dead yet. The base of the stalk was still firm and so I thought I'd give it another chance. 

Hopefully in my next update I'll have bigger and better potatoes to show off!!

Were you excited like I was the first time you harvested something you grew? What was it? What's your favorite plant to grow in your garden?

Till next time,

Catherine

Grow: Container Potato Plant

Did you know you can plant potatoes in containers and they'll do great? According to many internet sources they do! Since we're still living in a townhouse, we don't have our own land to garden on so I'm trying to do what I can to have a lot of green! 

I've been on the hunt for a cute barrel for quite some time. I had seen them at Lowe's and Home Depot but they just seem so expensive! Like this one at Lowe's is super cute but $35 seems steep to me! 

And then I found this wooden beauty! My husband and I went into a huge estate sale store that was going out of business. It was priced at $7...not bad! But then we get to the counter and we are told everything is 40% off! We paid a little over $4 for this cool little barrel! 

It's not quite as big as I wanted but for $4 how can you go wrong? It's maybe a foot tall. 

There's a tiny hole in the bottom too. Not sure why, though.

We decided to line it with a plastic bag just to be safe so it wouldn't rot the wood. It was pressure fit, sanded and sealed with something so I think it would have been fine, but it can't hurt to have that layer of protection. 

I didn't want to drown my taters so I gathered some old decorative rocks and stones to lay in the bottom.

 Then we filled it most of the way with soil.

We left about 4-6" open from the top. 

I grabbed our quite sprouted potato that I had cut in half a couple days beforehand. You can tell I've been hoping to find a good barrel like this for a while! 

I then set them on top of the soil. Because the roots were so long already, I made sure to bury them into the soil first.

About another 2-3" of soil on top, some water and we're good to go! 

Now we wait! I really hope we get some little potatoes in a few months!

I got my first sprout in just a couple of weeks!

 After over 3 weeks, they've both sprouted and are even growing leaves. I'm so excited!

It's important to note that if the potatoes start showing to cover them up with another inch or two of soil. You want the stem to be under soil by about an inch and a half. 

Stay tuned for updates on the potato growth!

What are some veggies you've grown in containers? Which ones seem to work the best?

Till next time,

Catherine