Five On Friday

This week I wanted to share 5 Kitchen to Garden tips, cheap and easy to help your garden be more productive and bloom.

Egg Shells

Dried and crushed egg shells, I dry mine in the bottom oven of the Rayburn but you could pop them in the bottom of the oven when you have finished cooking, I crush them up and keep in a container, they then get worked into the soil were tomatoes and peppers grow, the calcium released by the shells helps fend off blossom end rot, leaving some on the surface of compost can help deter slugs and snails too.

Banana Skins

Banana skins chopped up and buried near the roots of roses and sweet peas, the peels potassium will give the plant a nutritional boost and help the resist disease.

Citrus Peel

Any citrus peel, Oranges, Lemons, Limes or Satsumas, scatter these on your borders and beds were you have freshly dug soil or just sown seeds, the smell deters cats from using it as a toilet, you have to keep adding fresh peel as the smell dissipates after a few days or rain.

Coffee Grounds

picture courtesy of google

Spent coffee grounds are great scattered around lime hating plants, such as blueberries, azaleas, rhododendrons, the grounds are rich in nitrogen which helps plants covert sunlight to energy and lower the PH of the soil, if you are not a coffee household, those fancy coffee shops often give the spent grounds away free just pop in and ask.

Tea Bags

Something I have a lot of tea bags as I am a tea drinker, tea needs to be broken open and the spent tea tipped out, dig it in around plants, it will help nourish the plants and help retain moisture, you can just put the tea-bags down complete and then over time pick out the bags, spent tea is very good at encouraging earth worms.

Many thanks to Amy for running the five on Friday, you can pop over to her blog from the link on the side bar and visit others who are taking part.