Don't throw away your coffee grounds or egg shells, instead as you turn the potting soil in your house plants, add the grounds and shells for healthier house plants. This can also be used in vegetable gardens for larger crop yields.
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I'm curious. Do the coffee grounds spoil or get moldy. How should I save the egg shells and grounds if I am not ready to use the mixture just yet?
Yes, coffee grounds do get moldy if left in a bin(or bucket), in a warm kitchen. Put in freezer until you are ready to use, then unthaw and use.
Egg shells will be fine, just let dry and crush.
I always keep my grounds (both coffee and tea bags) in my oven in a small, beat-up old aluminum pie tin from years ago. When I turn on the oven every night to cook dinner, I pull out the tin. Once dinner is out of the oven, don't waste that precious hot air! Pop that pie tin right back into the oven and it will dry out the grounds, tea bags, eggshells, and especially your morning banana peel!
Every few days, once things are good and dried out, empty out the tea bag contents, crush up the dried eggshells, take your kitchen shears to the banana skins and chop them up as finely as possible. If you need to, you can speed up the process by taking a rimmed baking sheet and laying everything in a thin layer. Then bake at 350°F (180°C) for about an hour. I usually do this after baking something, this way you're already up to temperature.
Some people are worried about experiencing a smell. I promise you that you won't have any problems with that! The heat of the oven will kill off the potential for mold growth because you are going to be drying everything out. Only wet and soggy collections of tea bags, coffee grounds, eggshells and banana skins are going to smell. That's why you keep putting your collection into a hot oven every night.
Now, once everything is dried out, what do you do with it? I use an old ice cream bucket. I keep my grounds in that until I get enough to pop into my tiny little garden, in my case, that's about once a month. Think about it, once a month I would have been throwing out enough food scraps for about 1/4" layer of FREE soil amendments! (Disclaimer: when I say that my garden area is tiny, it's about 1 1/2' wide by 20' long, but I can collect enough to layer the entire area completely every year). Does it attract critters? Not that I've ever noticed. You're drying everything out, then you are crushing or cutting everything up, so it's not like you're going to be able to see how it's going to attract critters or cats to dig through your gardens.
When we moved into our senior manufactured home park four years ago, I had my soil tested. We're in Ohio and we have hard clay soil here. The first year, I tore everything out, saving the bulbs and the nicest plants. We had someone with a rototiller come out and he went down 12", amending the soil with 4 yards of gold loam, sand and vermiculite. It was expensive, but well worth it, as I now have really rich soil that my bulbs, annuals and perennials love! Using the added bonus of the scraps from our kitchen is a great FREE gift to the plants! Give this a try for a season in your garden and see how much you've been throwing away!
Garden Blessings to your own little patch of heaven!
Hello,
What temperature would I bake the egg shells and how long. I have been told this is better than raw eggs shell. If this is true, why is it better. Thank you for your time.
I just slide in the pie tin at whatever temperature I was cooking dinner at, for example, 350° F (180° C) is the typical number for most of the meals in my repertoire, but say you're making fries (chips) and you're cooking at a higher temperature, no problem!
If you're looking to speed things up, spread out the coffee grounds, tea bags, eggshells and banana skins to a thin layer and I'd say take a look at them at 1 hour. If they're not quite dry to your liking, just turn the oven off and keep the door shut and then by the time your morning cup of tea or coffee is brewing, take a look at the cookie sheet and see if they're ready to be put in a bucket or out in your garden, if you're short on room to store them. You're putting in potassium, calcium and nitrogen into your garden with everything you put back!
Happy gardening!
I was told to use eggs and milk to prep my soil for gardening what do you think?
Editor's Note: I've never heard this. Egg shells and coffee grounds maybe. Anybody hear this?
I was just looking for an organic fungus treatment and I found that milk does the trick. 1 part milk to 9 parts water sprayed on the fungus. Maybe the suggetion to use milk is to hinder the growth of fungus? Why not try?
(now I was looking to see if I could use egg shells for planting seedlings[yes, you can]. that's how i found this thread).
I would be prudent w/ grounds and egg shells...they can cause mold, fungus and attract pests...I do amend my potting soil w a 10/10/10 fertilizer (I always have a huge covered contained in my garage) & once planted, their first watering is with Thrive -- I also like Jobe plant sticks -- all of these are easy on the budget. I hate plant pests -- grounds & egg shells are great for compost. I would NEVER use milk --that's a new one on me cj in camas wa
Don't use milk to treat your garden, the sugars aren't right. Eggshells are good if they are composted or crushed and mixed with coffee grounds and grass cuttings for the garden. (Go easy on the grass cuttings here, a lawn does fine with mulched grass repeatedly during the summer, but your garden will be buried!) I'm interested in trying the "freeze" method on the coffee grounds for this winter!
What nutrients are in egg shells and coffee grounds that help the plants?
Calcium (eggshells), nitrogen (coffee and tea), potassium (banana peel). Everything your plants are hungry for! Plus you are not going to spend any money in doing this, since you've been throwing these out all this time. As long as your coffee grounds and tea sweepings are dry, there won't be any mold growth. Once they are ready for the garden I put mine about a palms width away from the plants stem. Coffee and tea are fantastic for roses, and tomatoes love bananas!
How does the eggshells help the plant grow and stay healthy, do you also add water?
Editor's Note: The eggshells add calcium to the soil.
I use coffee grounds, crushed egg shells, leaves from herbs I boil for my tea and I add my own soil and then mix. This goes on and around my plants all winter long. I do this because we have clay soil and it needs to be amended. Found this works best.
The water you boil eggs and herbs in? Use it over the plants once it is cooled. They LOVE it!
I put my eggshells in the microwave on a paper plate (even if I only have 2 or 3). Microwave them for a minute or two (depends on your microwave and how many eggshells you have). After you microwave them you can crush them with a rolling pin or coffee cup or throw them in the blender and they turn to a fine powder. Also when you microwave them you don't have to worry about rinsing them out.
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