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

DIY: Pallet Garden for less than $20 (including seeds!)

Anyone wondering why in the world I've got old pallets on my patio?? To make a pallet garden!! 

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That's not mine! That's the original image that I found on Pinterest ages ago. Since then I've seen it all over Facebook too. I'm sure you've seen it or a variation of it. Without even seeing tutorials, I figured it couldn't be much more difficult than stapling landscaping paper onto the bottom and sides. Sure enough I was right! Click HERE for another tutorial that I loosely followed. 

Some of you may know from previous posts that Brian and I live in a lovely little townhouse. We really do love it and it's a wonderful place to live but it's limiting when it comes to wanting to doing more permanent things like fencing a yard for the dogs or planting a garden. 

But, I've decided while I may be limited, I'm still going to grow as much as I can on our little patio! I've got the pallet garden and multiple plants and veggies growing in pots. I want to prove that even in small spaces it's possible to grow your own food! It's double challenging because my dad is the one with the green thumb in the family, not me! Although I'm passionate about growing things so hopefully that will make up for my lack of skills! We'll see!

Ok I know it doesn't look like much, but I did all seeds for the pallet garden, no transplants. I'll write update posts as the seeds sprout and grow!

What you'll need:

• Potting soil 
• Landscaping paper
• Staple gun and lots of staples
• Pallet(s)
• Seeds

I got all of this at Ollie's Bargain Outlet for $15! The potting soil was only $2 a bag and the landscaping fabric (4ft x 50ft) was only $7. They had multiple lengths and sizes to choose from. The width was perfect for these pallets and I was glad to find only 50ft rather than having to spend bookoo bucks on hundreds of feet we wouldn't be needing! 

My pallets I got for FREE at Lowe's! I had been wondering for months where to get pallets for cheap or free. They seem to be everywhere but not easily accessible. So I thought, anyways. I called up my nearby Lowe's store and asked if they sell or give away old pallets. At first the customer service agent said they sold them but when he asked someone else about the price, he found out they give them away for free! Now I don't know for sure if every Lowe's does this but I'd say just call and ask around. 

I also read online that you should look for serial numbers stamped on them with "HT" on it which stands for "heat treated' rather than chemical treated. We couldn't find stamps anywhere on any of the pallets we got so hopefully they're the former rather than the latter. 

When we drove around back to pick them up we found multiple sizes which turned out to be perfect! I thought the full sized pallets would be too big for our patio but we found two that were about half the size of a regular pallet and even one mini pallet! Jackpot! 

Directions:

Flip your pallet so that whichever side you want to be the BOTTOM is facing up. I wanted neat little rows so I used the more open side as the bottom. Roll out your landscaping paper so that it meets every edge.

Now staple, staple, staple! No one's going to see the bottom so just staple away. It doesn't need to look cute. 

Staples everywhere. 

To make sure every side is covered, roll the landscaping paper the opposite direction of the first layer then staple away. 

Fold up the corners and staple them until they're nice and secure. Brian and I actually did a total of 3 landscaping paper layers. I think as long as you do 2 you're ok. I was just worried because it seems so thin and I didn't want anything ripping. 

Now it's all done and ready for soil and seeds!

Remember, it doesn't have to be pretty, just functional. 

Add your soil and spread it evenly under the slats. 

Get your seeds or plants ready! I chose spinach, broccoli and a mixture of 5 lettuces. 

Fancy lettuce blend seeds.

Plant the seeds and water according to the directions on the seed packet. Since the soil was loose I simply dragged my trowel and made a trench about an inch deep and dropped the seeds in. The pups were out enjoying the evening too. No worries, they're attached to a yard stake so they're not going anywhere. 

Oh and don't forget your super sophisticated vegetable marking system. Sigh. I'll make something nicer eventually!

The two left sections are spinach, the middle is broccoli and the two on the right are the lettuce mix. 

And there you have it! A pallet garden for less than $20! It could even be free if you have your own compost and seeds saved from years past! I'm so excited to grow our own food! I can hardly wait to post pictures when they start sprouting! 

We've also got a strawberry plant and 4 roma tomato plants in pots. I bought green beans as well but still need to plant those. I'm really considering getting blueberry bushes too. Can I just have one of everything??

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Yep these memes are pretty accurate about now. 

Oh and I know the potting soil I got probably wasn't my best choice but it was $2...I don't know how I can refuse that. Plus, I've got another project going that will help highly fertilize my plants from now on! Can't wait to share that with you as well!

What's your favorite veggie or fruit to grow? Do you think I should get blueberry plants? Ooh or raspberry? How about both? 

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