For a couple of years now, I’ve been saving the shells from any eggs I cook. I accumulate them in a jug. On occasion, I use a glass bottle to smash and grind them into smaller pieces. Sometimes, getting awfully close to small-pebble size.
I mix the shells and egg residue into potting soil. From what I’ve read, it’s one of the best natural fertilizers in the category of Things You Probably Already Have at Home and Usually Throw Away.
It can also double as mulch, if I don’t smash the shells too small.
I like this method because it’s recycling, it’s organic, and it doesn’t require all the mess, and waiting, of making a compost heap.
I’ve recently branched out to banana peels. That sounds kind of weird: branching out to a peel. Hmm. I’m not into a tangent right now. Maybe later.
Banana peels are also one of the best natural fertilizers in the category of Things You Prob-
I’m not going to type the whole thing again.
It’s not the number of characters, that doesn’t bother me. I can, and have, type(d) for hours. It’s the regular caps disrupting the flow of keystrokes that I don’t like.
The first banana peels I used for fertilizer, I cut into small pieces and mixed into my soil. That’s fine. Seems a bit…. inefficient, maybe? Plus, when soil is outside it settles, but the big pieces stay on top. I’ve seen this with soil that contains mulch and other detritus. It doesn’t take very long before the fine soil has settled and the bigger pieces are left sitting on the top of the soil. I can just see people walking by one of the plant beds and asking, “What’s with the rotting pieces of banana peel scattered among the plants?”
I don’t think that’s what anyone is looking for when they garden, whether they’re doing it for food or decoration.
This morning, I cut the peel from the breakfast banana into small pieces (fresh fruit with breakfast every morning, yo. It’s old people in this house), put the pieces into an empty one-gallon jug and added just enough water to cover the pieces.
I’m going to add to it every morning. The nutrients in the banana peels are supposed to be water soluble, and don’t require additional heat or anything. After a while, I can use the water from this jug as fertilizer.
At least, that’s what the internet says.
I mean, not the WHOLE internet. The WHOLE internet isn’t so rational or chock full of useful information. It has a much lower common denominator. Several sites I found online have indicted that this process will result in a solution that can be used as plant fertilizer.
That’s what I’m doing.
The question I’m posing to everyone else, is do you have any interesting natural home plant fertilizing information you want to share?
Hook a brother up. What’ve you got?
I’m not looking for something that’s being touted by Better Homes and Gardens. I’m interested in hearing what that girl from my English glass, junior year of high school figured out last week or what that guy I know from some job I worked at twenty years ago learned from his grandfather.
I mean, I’ve figured out quite a few things in my life and my grandfathers taught me some cool stuff. I know not the only one. Right at this moment, I’m looking for those little gems that pertain to home made plant fertilizer, if anyone has any.
Thanks in advance!
P.S. I got all the way through this without mentioning current events even once.
What was even more difficult, in this instance, was getting all the way through this talking about bananas and fertilizer without making any off-color, tongue and cheek or downright inappropriate, snarky remarks.
That struggle was real.
P.P.S The above Post Script was from this post on Facebook. Facebook does not have titles for posts, so the title I used was nowhere to be found.
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