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Home » Gardening

Seed Starting In Eggshells - How To Start a Mini Garden

Mar 4, 2021

See how to plant seeds in eggshells and how to start a mini garden. Seed starting in eggshells is ideal for organic gardening. Check it out!

seed starting in eggshells

This post contains affiliate links. Thanks for your support.

How to Start a Mini Garden

Springtime again. My wishes for a garden have remained - wishes only. Which doesn't stop us from making plans and getting ready for the planting season and gardening on the balcony!

Eggshells provide the seeds with a safe and cute harbor to sprout. But what I like most is they are eco-friendly. Not only are the eggshells biodegradable - they will provide nutrients to your plants, too! Eggshells are an excellent food for indoor plants. In short, a great idea to start an indoor herb garden or container gardening.

planting seeds in eggshell planters

If you use eggs for your breakfast, handle the eggshells with a little care and you'll get yourself lovely seed planters - zero cost and ecological! Read on to see how.

If you use the egg carton as holder for the eggshells, you don't even need to spend money on a seed tray! For the purposes of this tutorial, I only used one eggshell and in this case, it was easiest to simply place it into an egg cup I had at hand. Cute, too, isn't it?

seed starting in eggshells

Get Your supplies For starting Seeds in eggshells

  • eggshells
  • a spoonful of potting soil per eggshell
  • an eggshell holder (egg carton is a good solution!)
  • seeds
  • water
seed starting in eggshells

How To start Seeds in eggshells

Firstly, crack the eggs a bit more carefully than usually when preparing your breakfast. Try to leave the lower two-thirds of the eggshell intact. Well, one half will do just as well. Empty the eggshells (What about making scrambled eggs for your kid's breakfast?) and wash them gently but thoroughly.

empty eggshells for starting seeds

Next, make a tiny drainage hole at the bottom. I used a pin for that. Then place the eggshell into a holder (an egg carton is a zero-cost and easy solution).

planting seeds in eggshell planters

Then fill your eggshell with moist potting soil. I just took a spoonful of soil from one of my garden pots on our balcony. This was the fastest and easiest way to get the potting soil at the moment.

planting seeds in eggshell planters

Now it's finally planting time! Plant the seeds of your choice according to the directions on the seed package. What you see here are rucola seeds. Feel free to check out this gardening post with more choices.

Once planted, place your eggshell seed starter onto a window sill or somewhere else with enough daylight.

seed starting in eggshells

Don't forget to water! Spray with water every now and then to prevent drying out. Don't exaggerate. When the seeds develop the first set of 'real' leaves, you will easily transfer them into a larger pot or box. You won't even need to replant them as they grow - you simply place the eggshell (together with the sprout and soil) into the plant pot. Happy gardening!  Save to Pinterest for some inspo:

seed starting in eggshells

While you can totally use your Easter dye to add a pop of color as we did here (this Easter DIY decor project), this is an adorable nature brown-egg craft and a great way to start your organic herbs and vegetable garden.

MAKE YOUR OWN POT COVERS FOR YOUR SEEDLINGS

Do you want to grow your mini garden in plant pots? Consider sewing a few easy plant pot holders. These little KAIA bins always turn out beautiful, and you can sew them in matching color sets:

  • . these LEA bins are adorable too,
  • if you need several sizes, try this free basket sewing pattern. Easy and cute!

MORE POSTS YOU MIGHT LIKE:

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How to easily get beautifully green plants for your home - for FREE

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seed starting in eggshells

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Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Enthusiastic Gardener

    August 22, 2016 at 12:57 pm

    This is one really sweet way to teach your kids how to be more caring. I will definitely try it with my little ones!

    Reply
  2. Fallon Regan

    July 14, 2015 at 12:57 pm

    Oh, so cute idea! My girlie will fall in love with this mini garden. She just asks tons of questions every day about how plants grow and what happens to the seeds when they're in the soil. This is a good way to show her the whole process, or at least a part of it. I'm sure she will be glad to take care of her own plants. Thank you for the idea!

    Reply
    • Damjana at AppleGreen Cottage

      July 18, 2015 at 11:24 am

      Fallon Regan,
      you're welcome. I'm happy you found something for you here too, I love it when someone finds an idea useful and tries it out. Have a great day, 🙂

      Reply
  3. pinkoddy

    April 02, 2015 at 1:56 pm

    This is such a great idea and just perfect for this time of year. I have featured it on The Weekly Kids Co-op

    Reply
  4. Cathy McInnes

    March 28, 2015 at 7:34 pm

    This made my day Damjana to see this! A must must try! What a creative idea, and I really appreciate you sharing your latest creation at Making Memories Mondays! Love this!
    Cathy@!threekidsandafish{dot}com

    Reply
  5. Lindsey Olsen

    March 24, 2015 at 6:04 pm

    So cute! And I love that it transfers easily to a bigger pot!

    Reply
    • Damjana at AppleGreen Cottage

      March 24, 2015 at 7:01 pm

      Lindsay,

      agree! No work needed at that 'replanting' stage, I like that too 🙂

      Reply
  6. Marina

    March 23, 2015 at 8:46 am

    This is such a great idea. I was thinking of starting my small garden and this would be a fun activity to do with my daughter 🙂

    Reply
    • Damjana at AppleGreen Cottage

      March 24, 2015 at 7:00 pm

      Marina,
      thanks, and - yes, now is the perfect time to do that. (And your daughter just the perfect age to help and enjoy it!) Looking forward to hearing how it went!

      Reply

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