Some people pop packing bubbles. Others crack their knuckles. I crush egg shells. It's so fun.
I crush eggshells only during gardening season. Otherwise, I rinse them, toss them in a box (or ice cream pail as above,) and let them dry out until gardening season.
Why would anyone crush dried-out eggshells?
I am one of those people who cannot seem to keep plants alive. Bugs eat them. Cats uproot them while going potty. They get blossom end rot.
Eggshells, it turns out, help with all of those problems. By drying them out and crushing them you can:
1. Put them in the hole when you transplant your tomato plants from the container to the garden. The calcium from the shells keeps the tomatoes from getting blossom end rot. Nothing sadder than thinking you're picking a ripe, juicy tomato, only to poke your thumb into the rotted bottom.
2. Sprinkle them around plants that are susceptible to snails and slugs. I guess those soft-bellied pests don't like the feel of eggshell slicing open their innards.
3. Cats supposedly don't like the feel of eggshells on their feet or on their tushies. The jury is still out on this one. Either I don't sprinkle enough eggshells, or it's a cat-lie because I still find cat butt-prints in my garden in the morning.
4. Eggshells sprinkled on your soil or in your compost help enrich the soil.
My summery activity for Day 6 was crushing the shells I had on hand and sprinkling them over my garden. Try it. It's therapeutic.
What looks like white rocks are actually the shells.
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