Coffee Grinds & Egg Shells

We have not yet started a compost at our new house.  We should’ve gotten on it as soon as we moved in, but composters can be expensive and we had some other things that took precedence.  At our old house we had a really big, 3 section composter that FIL built.  We also had a much bigger yard.  Our new yard is MUCH smaller so we are looking at smaller, rotating composters.  I have my eye on the Good Ideas CW-2X Compost Wizard Dueling Tumbler.  It has two sections so we can have one pile cooking while we add to the second pile.  And it rotates on its base so we don’t have to turn it with a pitch fork.

Did you know though that there are some things you can rake directly into your garden instead of putting them through a composter?  For the past few weeks we have been saving our coffee grinds (Benzo drinks a lot of coffee) and our egg shells for the garden.

Coffee grinds are easy as they are pretty much the consistency of dirt.  Benzo dumps the used grounds into a container and then once a week or so we sprinkle them on the garden and rake them into the soil.  Worms love coffee grinds and they are rich in nitrogen.  We keep the container in the refrigerator so it doesn’t get moldy before we can use them.

My picture is sideways but you get the idea.

Egg shells can also be raked directly into the garden or placed at the bottom of the hole when transplanting.  Egg shells have calcium which can help prevent blossom end rot, something we have battled in the past with our tomatoes.  We keep our empty egg shells in a bowl on the counter so they can dry out.  Once dry we crunch them up into tiny pieces and sprinkle them over the garden.  Then rake them in to the first inch or two of soil.  Wet egg shells are hard to break into tiny pieces because the membranes want to hold them together.  The smaller the pieces the faster they will break down in your soil.

I’ve also read that you can put banana peels in your garden but I haven’t tried that yet.  I’m afraid an animal will come and dig up my garden trying to get it!  We have a little chicken wire fence around our garden but I don’t know that it would keep out a determined raccoon.

One other tip is if you have any spoiled milk or yogurt you can water your garden with that to add calcium.  Tomatoes in particular like it.  I would water down yogurt to a watery consistency and then pour it around the roots.  I would probably also water down the milk too.  So don’t throw it out!  Put it to good use.

Happy gardening!