..in my garden

Green thumbs do not exist on my hands, but I'm happy to say I've only murdered a handful of plants.  ((RIP homies.))  This is our little house, this is our little garden and this is our big dog who is lazy and eats all my lettuce because he thinks he is a deer.

..let it grow

Although I'm a lover a Fall (leaves, boots, sweaters, cocoa & fires) I would have to say that Spring is my second favorite season because to me it means farmers market, bicycle rides, cute cardigans, bits of sun and starting my garden.  I had seen some egg shell gardens around before and knew I wanted to have a cute table-top starter for myself.   Since they are bio-degradable and if your household consumes eggs why not put them to good use if you are throwing them away or composting them already? They are insanely easy to do, totally on the cheap, you really only need a few supplies and to follow just a couple of steps.

SUPPLIES

egg shells

egg crate carrier

soil

seeds

needle

spoon 

gloves optional

When prepping your egg shells try to crack towards the top of the shell so that you have more of a 3/4 full shell versus a 1/2 shell, then rinse the shell out carefully.  I placed a little bit of soil in a container and added some water to the mix to get it pre-soaked.. not much just enough so that it absorbs and is noticeably damp.

I ended up not wearing the gloves because it wasn't horribly messy and they seemed dangerous around those delicate shells!  Take your needle and carefully press towards the bottom of the egg. Its easy if you just lay your egg bottom down on your surface, hold your needle through it with one hand then lightly pull the egg up with your other hand so the needle stays in place while puncturing (sorry I couldn't take an actual photo of that!).  This little hole will allow for just enough drainage when watering.

I decided to go with a few herbs for the shell portion of my table-top garden.  Most of the herbs I chose had about the same soil depth and I wanted to stick with the recommended planting instructions. You can use the spoon or your fingers:  I filled up the eggs about 3/4 full with soil loosely packed in, sprinkled a couple of seeds then carefully topped and pressed the soil over the remainder of the shell. <-- just be careful not to break it thats all.

This part is optional and obviously however you want to label them you can. I would just try to make some sort of system so that you can easily know which shell is what (if you are doing more then one type of plant) so that you know the proper germination time.  They won't necessarily all be ready to be planted outside at once so you want to know when that is based off the back of the seed packet.

I had a couple extra mini pots hanging around so I added Tomato & Basil into those and put everything on a convenient little tray to hang out on my table and get lots of light.  You want to either place by a window that gets light or on warm days let those cuties hang outside for a bit!

We moved over to the new place around the time they started to sprout up so I let them hang out on the window sill in my kitchen, so cute right?  When the shells are ready I can pop them into a larger planter or any garden space, you can choose to crack the shell or put it in as is.  If you have a paper container like mine (not styro) then you can plant that too!

a sad winter garden..

The color of springtime is in the flowers, the color of winter is in the imagination.

~terri guillemets

My backyard has been suffering and I can't wait to get out there again soon to start preparing it for spring.  The fall and winter have really got the best of me and kept me indoors most of the time (mainly with business not the cold since it has been so mild here in Oregon), so I didn't plant a winter garden.  We have a giant oak tree right in the middle of our back yard that dumps twigs and leaves all year long, making for great mulch.. but also a great mess!  More then likely I will get my mom (the green thumb) out here to help me in the next few weeks and I will update you then, is your garden as sad as mine? <--- please say yes so I don't feel alone!