SOUND ON!
A fun sensory activity to do with your kids, a way to reduce waste, AND a calcium rich addendum to your soil!
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Eggshells contain calcium carbonate, which when added to your soil can provide a slow nutrient release of calcium for plants and also can reduce the acidity of your soil. (Especially great for tomatoes, peppers, and eggplant.) Though nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium are most vital for healthy growth, calcium is also essential for building the “bones” — or cell walls — of the plant. Crushed eggshells also help to aerate the soil. And if you have enough, can even be used as mulch.
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Simply crush up the shells and mix into the soil around your plant or add a layer when planting for homemade fertilizer. Or you can make calcium water by steeping the dried eggshells in water for a couple of days, then use the strained water for your plants, including houseplants.
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*Make sure to rinse the eggshells out first and let them dry!* If you want to sterilize the shells, leave them in a cooling oven after baking.
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Fun fact: it supposedly takes 3 years for an eggshell to fully decompose underground!
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How are you using what’s around you to garden?
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This institution is an equal opportunity provider. This material was federally funded by USDA’s Nutrition Assistance Program - SNAP.
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#GardenScience #FoodWaste #Reuse #HomeGardening #SensoryActivitiesForKids
Registration for DC’s Marion Berry Summer Youth Employment Program is open! If you know anyone interested in being part of our Green Ambassador Program this summer, make sure they register for #mbsyep2020 by Feb 29.
Sometimes the bird require that you stop and walk in the rain on your lunch break. #behindthescenes #gardenersinwinter
SEED DELIVERY!! Bush beans, onions, and carrot seeds galore! 🥕Johnny's Selected Seeds provides us with great seeds to get the garden started. Farmer Jake sure is excited! #behindthescenes #GrowingGreenDreams
PULL! PULL! PULL! It's a carrot! Such awesome teamwork from St. Stephen's & St. Agnes School kindergarten students. We always love how surprised students are when they find out the part of the carrot they eat is the root!
Dig, dig, dig! Fun times well spent around the raised bed at Friendship Woodridge IB Elementary and Middle Campus #GrowingGreenDreams #GardenScience
This past summer Washington Youth Garden partnered with U.S. Department of Education and First Lady Michelle Obama's Let's Move initiative for a Let's Read! Let's Move! event at the U.S. National Arboretum. Check out our video filmed by Key In Films to see all the fun we had!
Thank You All for coming out and supporting Arbor Day Fest yesterday at the National Arboretum! Big thanks to all the participating organizations who made this possible. More photos coming soon! Here is a snippet from the evening reception at the National Herb Garden with Lauren White Performing. Enjoy!
#ARBORFEST2016 #WYG45th
Last Saturday, our 4th Annual Garlic Planting Party was filled with laughter and fun. Dragon was a roaring success, and by the end of the event, we had quite a few rows of garlic planted.
We want to thank everyone for coming out, for Trader Joe's and their generous donation, and for our volunteers helping us out.
Live It Learn It representing at the garden!
Farmer Jake showing a group of students from Georgetown Day School various herbs from the garden.
Favorite repeating quote of the SPROUT trip: "Can we eat it?"
The peanuts are coming in nicely at the Garden.
A tour of the Sunflower House
Mayor Muriel Bowser is visiting the school garden at John Burroughs Education Campus! Food Corps member Karen Davison, the WYG team, and the school community have done a great job creating a beautiful learning environment. That process involved spreading a lot of Woodchips for pathways!
KIPP Webb Campus build day would not have been the same without Potomac Grange #1's donation of a smoothie bike and some key volunteer hours!!
We are always up to something new in the garden, add to the list "film crew". Hope you enjoy our short first piece, "Birth of the Sweet Potato"!
More baby birds in the over-sized nest! Happy Friday everyone!
Carrot Dance
I think we can safely say that this expresses how we all feel about the fantastic Garlic Planting Party we had this weekend. Thanks for coming, everyone!!