Planting Eggs In The Garden

in steemiteducation •  5 months ago  (edited)

My husband caught me burying eggs in the garden last week. Perplexed, he asked me why I was planting eggs in the garden. With a serious face I told him I was trying to grow more ducks. Actually, I am trying an experiment.

I've been told many, many times that fish is a great fertilizer for the garden and burying fish parts like the heads can help a garden grow. I don't have access to fish. I decided to research other things I could use in the garden to help make my soil better. Several articles discussed burying eggs in the garden. As they decompose they fertilize the garden and add good things like calcium.


Since I always have excess duck eggs on hand, I decided to take some of the older eggs and put them to work in the garden. My experimental duck egg garden patch will have mostly tomatoes. I planted my first eight tomato plants last week: four Cherokee Purples and four Early Girls.

I worked really hard de-weeding this patch. It had a Sumac tree that had been growing in it for years before we bought the property. Sumac is very invasive. It sends out roots and along the roots it'll send up shoots which can become new trees. If you pull up a shoot it'll make the thing grow more aggressively. To get ride of the sumac I had to dig down in this patch four to 12 inches and pull up all the roots.

Picture of the patch I worked so hard de-weeding with my decorative sprinkler


It took a week of digging and pulling to get the bed clean. I then put a layer of newspaper over the top and covered that with soil. Then, I covered that with a layer of hay to keep new weeds out and help the soil from drying out so quickly.

It made it easy to do my tomato planting since I'd tilled the soil so deeply. To put my eggs in the ground I dug a really deep hole, deeper than I'd plant the tomato, and placed one egg in the hole. I didn't put the tomatoes directly on top of it in case the rotting egg somehow could hurt the plant. I put the tomatoes diagonal so the two tomato plants were on each side of one egg. I really don't know how the eggs will work so one egg per two plants seemed enough.


My Set-up


I also tried something new I saw on Pinterest that seems all the rage. Placing a bottle upside down with holes poked into the top and the bottom cut off is suppose to be a method for watering. Fill the bottle up and it's suppose to slow seep into the ground. I figured I'd try this in one spot since this particular patch gets direct sunlight and dries out fast.


Using straw for mulch does seem to be working. It keeps the soil moist for much longer which is nice. I don't have to water as frequently.

I've got around 50 more tomato plants started and in the house still. I've got a bad sinus infection so I won't be able to move them outside and in the garden until next week. I've got some ruby red corn, peppers, and eggplants started as well. Some are in the early stages and some will be ready for the garden next week.


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Haha this was a good laugh, planting eggs to grow ducks haha. It's interesting but I can only imagine it might attract some pests to the area due to the surely aromatic smell of rotting eggs hehe.

Sounds promising! I know when I was growing up that my mom always saved the egg shells and used coffee grounds for her gardens and she always had beautiful plants and the best vegetable garden..wish I had inherited more of that green thumb. 🙂

Coffee grounds? wow, did your mom compost the coffee first or just sprinkle the used coffee grounds directly on the ground? I've only ever tried used coffee grounds as an exfoliant in the shower. Holy, what a mess that made!!

Hi @steem-samiam! It was so long ago but I believe she just put them in the garden and tilled it in. She had a stove percolator (fun fact..they still sell them) and would save the grounds and eggshells. I remember her adding them together in a can and adding the contents weekly to her garden. It wasn't unusual to find eggshells in the indoor plants as well. I did not inherit her green thumb so much. Her gardens were her biggest joy, other than her nine children (I I bet that was a mess but I can see where it would make a great exfoliant too.😉

Thanks! Nine children, wow!:)

I save the egg shells too. I just crunch them up with my hand so the pieces are broken but sharp. I toss them on top of dirt in container pots and it deters my cats from getting in there.

I heard of using eggshells as fertilizer before but never a whole egg.

I will be very curious to hear how your egg experiment works out! We are constantly finding piles of eggs of unknown age, and we usually toss them over the cliff to let the critters eat them. This might be a good way to put them to use!

Sorry about your sinus infection. Just when you think the sickness season is over...

Me too! My ducks love to move their nests and hide their eggs. We throw the off the side of the mountain. Now, I'm learning about composting so a least I can put them to good use with making that. I hate getting sick with a stuffy nose. I can handle fever and chills but I hate not sleeping from a clogged nose.

Congratulations, your post has been selected to be included in my weekly Sustainability Curation Digest for the Minnow Support Project.

You'll have to let us know how the duck plants work out... lol.

I haven't heard of doing that, but it does sort of make sense. Have you tried straw bale gardening, yet? It doesn't work for everything, but it's great for tomatoes. Just a thought. Anyway, good luck with the gardening.

I always separate and freeze the yolk and whites, never thought of using the whole egg as fertilizer! Can’t wait to see how it goes!

A glass of silver water a day for a couple of weeks will knock that sinus infection right out...

Then a few sips a day will keep it from coming back.