An eggshell pierced at the base and refilled with soil mix becomes a seed pot; a diced banana peel buried at the foot of a rose bush becomes fertiliser. Recycling kitchen and garden waste lets you sow, propagate and feed plants for almost nothing, provided you match each scrap to the one job it does best.
Wondering what eggshells can serve for? Want to turn a trimming chore into a cuttings bonanza? Repurpose pits? Create your own fertilizer? There are 1001 ways to upcycle existing waste to make your garden better.
Pop a small hole at the bottom of each half-shell, set them back in their egg crate, and you’ve got a great seeding set! Fill them up with soil mix and sow your seeds.
When the plants have sprouted, squeeze the shells to splinter them and plant the whole thing in the ground.
Roots will cross over through the shells, and the calcium will break down and feed the plant as it decomposes.
Every scrap in the kitchen bin or the leaf pile has one job it does better than the others. Here is what to keep, what to do with it, and how long before it earns its keep.
| Waste item | What to do with it | What it gives | Ready to use |
|---|---|---|---|
| Egg shells | Pierce the base, sit the halves in the egg crate, fill with soil mix and sow | A free seedling pot, plus calcium as the shell breaks down | As soon as the seedlings have sprouted |
| Cut rose stems | Cut into 4 to 6 inch (10 to 15 cm) pieces and plant in full shade, watering regularly | New rose bushes identical to the cut flowers you loved | Transplant a year later, in autumn |
| Apricot stones | Set the pit to germinate in a pot of sand, then move the seedling to open ground | A fruit tree bearing fruit like the apricot you enjoyed | Transplant in early spring, plant in the orchard in autumn |
| Chicken feathers | Steep in a pail of rainwater, held under with weighted mesh wire, in the shade | A liquid feed very high in nitrogen and trace elements | After two months of maceration |
| Banana peels | Dice and bury 1½ inches (4 cm) deep at the foot of rose bushes, or add to compost | Phosphorus and potassium for rose trees | Straight away, used as is |
| Dead leaves | Pile in a corner, water, stomp down and layer with shovelfuls of healthy soil | Humus to spread on beds, around trunks and in the vegetable patch | Split the pile the following spring |
None of it costs anything, and each one replaces something you would otherwise have bought.
Are you simply in love with the cut roses you were just given? Grow them in your garden!
Snip the stems of a couple of the roses in bits 4 to 6 inches (10 to 15 cm) long, and plant these rose cuttings in a spot full of shade. Water regularly. A year later, in fall, you’ll be able to transplant those cuttings that have developed a root ball.
→ Never throw pineapple heads away again!
Found an apricot particularly delicious? Set its pit aside to germinate in a pot filled with sand. In March, transplant the seedlings directly to the ground.
Come fall, you can set this apricot tree in the in the orchard section of your garden, it will produce fruits similar to the one that wowed you earlier.
→ Works great with avocado, too
Do you have chickens? Recover the feathers they lose every now and then and “steep” them in a pail filled with rainwater. Immerse them under the water level with mesh wire weighted down with rocks or they’ll simply float. Macerate in the shade for two months. This traditional Chinese recipe produces fertilizer that has very high nitrogen and trace element contents – something any plant will appreciate!
With high levels of phosphorus and potassium, banana peels are great ingredients for your compost.
You can also use them as is for rose tree fertilizer: dice them up and bury them about 1½ inches (4cm) deep at the foot of your rose bushes.
Pile dead leaves up in a corner of the garden. Water, stomp the leaves down to crush them, and throw in a couple shovelfuls of healthy soil before adding the next batch of leaves.
In the following spring, use your spading fork to split the pile and use this mostly broken down organic matter to lather your flower beds, around the trunks of your trees, and in growing beds for the vegetable patch.
As they continuously break down, leaves turn into humus that will fertilize soil.
→ Also: DIY mulch mix
Laure Hamann
