How to use eggshells to improve your garden - including warding off slugs and boosting soil quality
A gardening expert offered an easy tip for people struggling with slugs and snails
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Slugs and snails have their place in the garden, but can also be menaces if not curtailed.
A gardening expert spoke exclusively to GB News about how garden enthusiasts can ward off snails and boost their green spaces in the process with an eggshell hack. Sam Marlow told gardening fans to sprinkle crushed eggshells around the base of plants to deter the often bothersome animals.
Slugs and snails are an important part of the composting process: many of them feed on decomposing organic matter, such as dead leaves, dung, and dead slugs and snails.
However, while they do play an important role in the garden, they may also feed on garden plants and disrupt their growth.
Britons can eliminate slugs in their garden using crushed eggshells
PA IMAGESThey can also destroy seedlings, create jagged rips in plants, and leave behind their slimy residue.
Garden experts at the Royal Horticultural Society explained that the netted field slug, brown soil slug and common garden snail are some of the species most likely to be found feeding on garden plants.
Keeled slugs can sometimes be found creating holes in potatoes and other tubers.
Sam Marlow from Garden Buildings Direct told GB News: "We all know that kitchen waste is great for compost, but did you know that there are other uses in the garden for kitchen waste?
"Crushed eggshells sprinkled around the base of plants can deter slugs and snails, as the sharp edges irritate their soft bodies."
Broken eggshells have a secondary benefit in the garden. Sam explained that because they break down over time, they provide calcium to the soil.
"There are many essential minerals in the soil, and calcium is one of them," said the experts at Gardening Know How.
"It's not only needed to build strong cell walls to keep the plant upright, it provides transport for other minerals. It may also counteract alkali salts and organic acids. When you add calcium to the soil, it's like giving your garden a vitamin pill."
The experts explained that a plant deficient in calcium may have "stunted growth" in its new leaves and tissues.
Sam provided a second tip for warding off "the most hated pest in horticulture". According to the expert, Britons can eliminate slugs in their garden using beer.
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Some species of slugs and snails feed on live plant material, destroy seedlings, create jagged rips in leaves, and leave behind their slimy residue
GETTY IMAGESThe gardening guru explained: "Slugs are attracted to the beer, crawl in, and drown."
Sam also recommended that gardeners grab a second popular beverage that could work wonders in their garden: Cola.
According to the expert, this drink can be used to "revive plants suffering from nutrient deficiencies".
He explained that the sugar and phosphoric acid included in the drink provide struggling plants with a bit of energy.