Egg Shell Tea for the Garden

Brad and I have been composting for about 9 months now (something that I keep meaning to write a post on, it will come soon).  At first we put egg shells in along with our other food scraps, but lately we have found a better use for them.  I know that putting egg shells in your compost is great, but it drives me crazy how they never ever ever seem to break down.  For a while we went back to throwing them in the regular garbage, but I felt guilty about that.  Now we get the nutrients in a faster process.  I present to you, egg shell tea.

Just kidding.  But it is similar.

We crush and rinse the egg shells to make sure all the egg white is off of them.  Then we soak the egg shells in water for 2-3 days usually.  Then we use that water to water our plants.  I use it particularly for the spider plant, but also for the pot of spinach we are growing outside.  I have noticed a big growth spurt specifically in our spider plant since I began to water with the "egg shell tea."

Egg shells contain water soluble nutrients such as calcium, potassium, and phosphorus.  Soaking the shells allows me to quickly extract these nutrients and feed them to our plants.  Egg shells are also alkaline, and thus using this water somewhat increases the pH level of the soil which is beneficial to some plants.

How do you use egg shells?

Nature's Bounty

Just a little bonus post to show you how our garden's doing.  As I've written before, we have a tiny garden at our home, but we also have an amazing garden that we share and work on together with 2 other couples.

The garden at our house is quite pitiful.  Even in the summer, we only get about 3-4 hours of sunlight a day, so it's having a hard time.  The "community" garden though is growing beautifully!  We stopped by Thursday evening to do some weeding and grab some goodies.

Raised garden beds.

 Side garden.

 Taking home wax beans, zucchini, lettuce, spinach, and herbs.

In our garden we've got carrots, radishes, strawberries, blackberries, raspberries, potatoes, yellow wax beans, green beans, an assortment of peas, green onion, tomatoes, broccoli, lettuce, spinach, green peppers, cucumber, zucchini, squash, corn, parsley, basil, dill, cilantro, and probably even more than I'm forgetting.  It's so exciting!

Do you have a garden?  What do you or would you like to grow?

Adventures in Horticulture

Plants look nice of course, but did you know some can actually purify the air in your house?  In March I was offered a spider plant, and after being told it could absorb indoor pollution, I jumped at the opportunity.  It was just tiny then, and since has grown wonderfully and even been put into a larger pot.  The spider plant was also appealing to me because they are easy to grow, tolerant of neglect, and still thrive in many different conditions.

Spider plant sitting in the window sill.

The spider plant (or Chlorophytum comosum if you want to be technical) removes:

-over 96% of carbon monoxide which is highly toxic to the body causing symptoms ranging from headaches to death

-formaldehyde, which disrupts the functions of the body and is a known cause of cancer, at a rate of 560 micrograms per hour

-xylene, which causes headaches, dizziness, confusion, and so on, at a rate of 268 micrograms per hour

The huge amount of carbon monoxide in particular that it can remove makes it especially useful in kitchens with a gas stove or living rooms with a fireplace.  I just love the idea of purifying with plants.  What could be more natural?

Unfortunately, the outdoor plants are not doing as well.

Zucchini plant

Bean plant

Any suggestions as to what is wrong with them or any ideas for what to do to help would be greatly appreciated!

Home Grown

Lately I am so thrilled with our garden!  Brad and I were quite concerned for a few weeks.  It seemed as though everywhere else we looked, plants were sprouting up.  Everywhere except at home.  Then we got the beautiful, hot weather this weekend, and our garden has practically exploded.

Beans.

A row of beans.

One of three zucchini plants that have popped up.

Lettuce?

At first we didn't know what were weeds and what were our vegetables so we left everything.  Now that they are getting bigger, we figure the similar looking ones growing in rows are probably the vegetables.  We still aren't sure about the lettuce.  Does that look like lettuce to any of you?

Bonus:

Happy World Oceans Day!

 

Today is the day to honour and celebrate the oceans that surround all of us on this planet.  Why should we?  Here are some reasons.  The world's ocean...

-generates most of the oxygen we breathe

-helps feed us

-regulates our climate

-cleans the water we drink

-offers a source for potential medicines

This has got me thinking about what I am putting down the drain, sustainable seafood choices, ditching plastic bags, and protecting aquatic life.  Hmmm...

Make Your Mark

This was a big gardening week for Brad and I.  We began planting in our own little garden at home, then had a nearly a full day of gardening in a huge garden a group of us are working on together at our friends' house.  For our home garden, we made our own garden markers, and here's how we (well, Brad) did it.

Begin with cut branches.

Shave bark off one section at the top.

Print names of garden items.

Place in the garden.

 Ta da!

They were so simple and quick to make, not to mention free.  Plus, I really love the natural look they have in the garden.

PS - As I mentioned, our home garden has begun.  We decided to plant zucchini, green beans, lettuce, peas, and snow peas.  We were quite limited in our options since we get very little sunlight.  It turned out well though as those are some of my favourite vegetables.  Oh, and they're mostly organic!