When your seedlings are ready to transplant, plant the egg shell into the ground after cracking it a bit for drainage. This way, you don't disturb the roots, the "container" is mainly free as you have already used the egg, and it gets the added benefit of calcium. Works for me every time.
By Banty from Chatom, AL
Source: Organic Gardening Magazine
By Wayne from Cecilia, KY
By Suntydt from Tazewell, TN
When I was a child, I had an elderly neighbor. Everyone called her 'Granny'. She kept chickens in a penned lot in back of her home. When she threw laying mash to her hens, she always included a smattering of crushed eggshells. Now, I know why. When eggs begin to form in a female bird, the bird seeks additional calcium in her diet. This extra calcium helps to strengthen her eggshells.
I wash, crush, and dry eggshells throughout the year. I try to keep at least a pint on hand. When spring arrives and I see new faces outside my window, and hear all those mating calls, I know it's time to add a few eggshells along with the bird seed to the feeders.
Keep a few of those eggshells for another reason. Adding a teaspoon or so to the bottom of the hole when planting tomatoes will do wonders at stopping blossom end rot. You will be supplying a slow release form of calcium which is better than the blossom end rot sprays you buy. The sprays are not cheap. The eggshells are free. Your choice. If you happen to have a bottle of blossom end rot spray around, check the label. You'll find the active ingredient is no more than a liquid form of calcium.
By likekinds
By Mike from Mercier, Quebec, Canada
Editor's Note: There are a few times this tip has been suggested on our site, including in the feedback of this post.
They can make lovely gifts. If you really enjoy doing it, you can extend how much work you put into it, creating things like jewelery boxes, etc. This type of thing can be as inexpensive or as expensive as the creator wishes.
Some things I did with them (using various types/sized eggs) was to cut into the egg and remove a portion, then create a Christmas scene in the hollow egg. Add glitter around the cut hole used to view the scene, then in a nice pattern around the rest of the egg to give it a really nice sparkle. For my mother's gift, one year after I'd been doing this for some time, I used an ostrich egg to create a jewelery box, lined it with silk, added the bits of hardware necessary. Tt turned out so much better than I'd dare to hope. Good luck with whatever you find for them!
By Hans
Uses for eggshells from the ThriftyFun community. I use finely crushed eggshells around seedlings that I transplant into my garden each spring. The shells keep snails, slugs and cut worms away.
When using eggs in my cooking, I try to break the shells near one end. The smaller piece of broken shell goes into the compost bowl, the larger part of the shell I put back into the empty egg carton and save for spring when I fill the shells with soil and start my seedlings in them. They are lightweight and easy to move around. When the plants have developed roots and are ready to transplant into the ground you just lift them shell and all and plant them in the garden. The egg shell will fertilize and nourish the plant. It will be off to a good start!
By Deborah from Terre Hill, PA
By willowfahy
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Uses for Egg Shells