It is OK to admit you loved New World supermarkets’ ‘tiny garden’ promotion. I was super impressed to see both adults and children getting a fun taste of gardening that was presentable enough to sit on the kitchen table.
But now what? The promotion has finished, the plants have grown and a tiny hole has been left in our hearts.
Never fear… egg shell plant pots will fill this void for you. After a few days of omelettes (trying to keep a yoke intact whilst emptying an egg with only the tip broken off is basically impossible). I had a great time with my son making the stand and filling the eggs with potting mix. Wholesome family fun.
Egg shells are 100% biodegradable and help add some wonderful calcium to your soil. I think they creep out slugs too.
For those of you who like instructions
Eat lots of eggs.
Crack off just the top part of your egg and empty the contents. Rinse out the shell and punch a wee hole in the bottom for drainage. If this hole is a bit bigger than you anticipated this is totally fine as long as it will hold potting mix.
Find or make your shell holder.
Fill your shells with organic potting mix. Add seeds and help them grow into wonderful seedlings.
Plant the seedlings, shell and all, in a bigger pot or into the garden. I would gently crack the shell as you do this to allow the plants roots to grow. Take care not to disrupt the roots of your seedlings whilst you do this.
For the planters
You can use anything that will hold an egg. The egg box will do fine though will become soggy. Egg cups, cut pipe, blue tack, sand boxes or napkin rings to name a few will work fine.
We made ours out of a timber off cuts. Into this we drilled a hole with a 32mm hole saw (any size that an egg doesn’t drop through will do). Break out the centres. Make drain holes in the timber if your holes don’t go straight through. Once you have your hole saw you can start making holders out of any timber. I mounted my hole saw in the drill press to make it easy for my son to help make them.