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Speaker 1: Welcome to the Simple garden Life Podcast, a program dedicated

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to keeping the yard of gardening simple, fun and always rewarding.

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Now Here are your hosts, Jim and Mary Competti.

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Speaker 2: Hello and welcome everybody to the Simple garden Life Podcast.

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I am your co host Jim Competti.

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Speaker 3: And I'm Mary Competti, and.

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Speaker 2: Together we are the dynamic duo today talking about the

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biggest mistake gardeners make with eggshells and more importantly, how

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to use eggshells correctly to power your garden and flower beds.

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And you know, we talk about eggshell's NonStop on the website.

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We've done a podcast on eggshells and coffee grounds Mary,

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but today we get so many emails about it. We

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really wanted to cover the subject of how to really

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use eggshells the right way.

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Speaker 3: Right with garden season coming up, it's the perfect time

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to talk about this topic.

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Speaker 2: It is so remind everybody that this is the Simple

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garden Life website. You can follow our podcast on simplegardenlife

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dot com. Just hit the podcast tab up there at

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the top and you can see all of our years

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of podcasts. This is our second episode of the twenty

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sixth season, and we've got a full slate this year

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and really really excited. And today's subject is one of

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the ones that a lot of vegetable gardeners and flower

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gardeners should also be really aware of before we get

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into how to use them, Right, Mary, I think we

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have to talk about you know, why eggshells are so

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incredible there are.

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Speaker 3: They're one of the most commonly recommended organic ingredients for

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powering both your garden soil and your plants.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, and for good reason. I mean they're rich in calcium,

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which happens to be, you know, a big time nutrient

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for strong plant cell walls, but it's also vital for

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the overall plant health. We've talked about this before. Most importantly,

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people associate lack of calcium with blossom.

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Speaker 3: Rot right, and blossom and broad For those that don't know,

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is that annoying little thing that comes up throughout the

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garden season when you think you have the perfect tomato

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or pepper growing on your plant and you go to

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pick it, or you go to check it and you

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touch it and finger goes right through the bottom of

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the tomato or pepper.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, it's just exactly what it sounds like, the end

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of the tomato or a pepper where the blossom was

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attached will start to rot away and it really ruins

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the entire fruit. Now, just to let people know, blossom

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in rot, don't confuse that with the first few tomatoes

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of the season or the peppers of the season. Your

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plants are young, they're very immature. We always get a

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ton of emails and messages about, oh my gosh, my

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tomato plants just produce their first tomato and they've got

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blossom in rot. Remember that when they're young and immature,

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those first few tomatoes are probably likely going to have that.

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That's why we always tell people pick those first few

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fruits off of your tomatoes or even your pepper plants

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and allow them to grow. But real blossom in rot

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is when that problem continues on through the spring and.

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Speaker 3: Summer, right And when you have those tomatoes and pepper

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plants that are doing that in the early season, it's

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most likely, dude, that we're overfertilizing in the stores, or

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that they're just young and immature and they haven't had

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it ability to absorb calcium correctly.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, they really are. So let's talk about really what

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eggshells do in the long term for your soil and

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that calcium. So why are eggshells so important for this Well,

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for starters, eggshells are ninety percent calcium carbonate. I mean

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that you're talking nine tenths of an eggshell is pure calcium.

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I mean that is what can provide that to your

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plants and the soil they grow in. But here's the issue.

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Most gardeners don't use them in the way that maximize

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those benefits for the crops this year.

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Speaker 3: Right, And we've learned over the years as well. We

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used to use eggshells in every planting hole and we

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would just crush them up with our hands and throw

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them in the planning hole, which does provide some benefits

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for the tomatoes and plants in the years to come,

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but not for this year's plants.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, and why is that. Well, let's just go back

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to the famous compost pile. Have you ever thrown eggshells

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into your compost pile, or for a better part, thrown

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them into your soil. You go out one month, two months,

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three months later, and there's still bits and pieces of

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those eggshells. Why is that? Because they take a very

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long time to break down. And when they take a

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long time to break down. What's that mean for your plants?

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Means they're not going to get those nutrients because they

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haven't broken down in the soil where they can absorb

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the calcium from the eggshells to really help them.

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Speaker 3: So the real secret is to making most out of

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your eggshells in your garden is how you prepare them.

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Speaker 2: It really is. I mean, they can correct calcium deficiencies,

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and they can help plants not have weak stems and

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curled leaves and poor fruiting. I mean it's not even

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just for tomatoes and peppers, it is for flowers. Calcium

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is such an important part of the overall makeup of

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what the soil needs to be healthy and what plants

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need to be able to absorb. You know, overly wet soil,

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overly dry so calcium has a hard time sofium with

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the plants. But there's a lot of times that there's

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just not the calcium in the soil that plants like tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers, flowers,

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big time annuals, like dreams, all of those that they

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just can't absorb it. And when they can't, then all

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the problems occur.

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Speaker 3: However, when properly use eggshells can provide a wonderful, slow

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release source of calcium throughout the growing season.

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Speaker 2: Oh, I mean, it's one of the best. That's why

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we always talk about them. So what is this big

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mistake that we talk about. Well, we've already kind of

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hit on it a little bit. You know, many gardeners

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assume that tossing large chunks, even semi crushed egg pieces.

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I even saw last week and you know, if it's

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on the internet, it's a tree right now. Yeah, right,

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But I saw last week where you should just plant

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two whole eggs with every tomato plant, and I started

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thinking it through it I'm like, Okay, you know, the

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yolk and things like that are going to have some benefits,

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but you're not getting the calcium benefit from a whole

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egg put in a hole, because again, that crush shell

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is not going to break down. Egg Shells take a

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long time to break down in the soil. I mean,

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especially when they're left in pieces. It can take months

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even years for that calcium to become available to the plants.

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So that means that simply placing an eggshell in the

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planting hole it's not going to provide any immediate benefits

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to the plant. To that spot during the current season.

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Speaker 3: So the question is what makes eggshells beneficial for this

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year's garden.

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Speaker 2: Well, there's a really simple thing. That delay that they

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have when they're breaking down is what causes it. So

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you have to help break those egg shells down a

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whole lot more to really help them absorb quickly into

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the soil and become a part of it. So let's

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take a break, and when we come back, we'll get

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to the way we handle our egg shells and how

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we plant them and how much we use, and then

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more importantly, how we start to store them all the

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time year round to really have eggshells on hand at

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any moment. We'll be right back after these messages, and

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we are back for the best way to use eggshells

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in the garden. And Mary, I guess, I mean, what

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is the secret?

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Speaker 3: Well to ensure your curtain garden always gets the full

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benefit of eggshells. It's actually best to grind them into

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a fine powder before adding them to the soil. But

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a lot of people say, Okay, what does that mean

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or how do you do it? So you know, it's

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actually very easy to do.

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Speaker 2: Oh yeah, you know, Look, you can go the hard route,

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you can get the what's it called a mortal and pest.

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I always thank you. I'm not the chef of the

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of the two of us, but here's here's the really

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easy way get yourself an inexpensive coffee grinder. I mean

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you can get them now for eighteen nineteen dollars, just

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the small, small hand ones and keep it around to

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pulverize egg shells. We use ours. You can put we

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crush them by hand. You can probably put I'm going

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to say, what six to eight egg shells marion and

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a little one, just like you're making coffee grounds. Right.

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Speaker 3: But the important key here is, yes, we're recommending using

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a coffee grinder or some grinder, but it really needs

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to be dedicated use to the eggshells.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, unless you're going to clean that thing out every

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single time, and you can. You can wash out and

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clean it. But we just like to go to that

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inexpensive route and say, okay, this is our grinder for

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all the things we're going to use. But you can

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grind that down not into small egg shell pieces, but

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into a very fine powder and I'm talking talcum like powder.

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That's what we do. We just grind it down over

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and over. It doesn't take long, and that actually has

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a lot of benefits for the plants. But before we

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do that, let's talk about storing them. It has a

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lot of benefits for us because let's talk about the

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years past when we would collect these eggs shells and

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we'd crush them by hand, put them in freezer bags,

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and we would just fill our freezer over the winter

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trying to save and have all this all these egg shells.

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Speaker 3: Right, So there's a better way to actually store your

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eggshells throughout the winter and getting ready for garden season. Yeah,

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we're not quite ready to plant yet, No, we're not.

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Speaker 2: We're still saving all of our eggs shells and for that.

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So what we do is, you know, we'll save so

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many A lot of people like to put their egg shells.

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We get all these questions, so I'm just going to

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cover them right now because I think it's important to

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talk about it. Do you have to dry them? Well, yeah,

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they're going to grind a whole lot better. We usually

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we get a grinding process. What every three or four weeks,

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we'll save our eggshells, will crush them by hand, put

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them in a freezer, luck bag, throw them in the

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freezer and when we get enough, we'll take them out

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and we'll freeze them or excuse me, not freezom we'll

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grind them up into that powder. You can, and a

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lot of people love doing this. Put them on a

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cookie sheet, put them in your oven, I think one

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p fifty and dry them out. We've never really done that.

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It's not necessary. People say, well, can you get this? No,

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they're eggshells. They're not going to carry all the other

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things we talk about, but a lot of people like

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to heat them up to dry them, and you certainly can.

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Speaker 3: Right The big concern is salvonilla, and you know you

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definitely we get the questions should you rinch your eggshells

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before you store them or crush them? Sure, printing is

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not going to hurt them. Putting them into a powder

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or grinding them into a powder is going to help

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get rid of at of that access to salvanilla. But again,

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you can rinse them and then dry them and freeze them,

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or you can put them in your oven. Most ovens

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are about one eighty to two hundred degrees and you

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can dry them out before you grind them. But you know,

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it's just an important thing. Is that we want them

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to to powder before they go into your planting holes.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, and then you freeze that and there's really little

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worry of anything. So once you get that powder and

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we save it up a lot, So now it really

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comes down to how are you going to use these

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to really benefit your plants. So you know, think before

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when you would crush those eggshells up and you might

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put an eggshell or two, and again we talked to it,

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it's not going to get to those plants this year.

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That's really not going to help the soil. But when

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you're taking a tea spoon or two of eggshell powder

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and you're putting it in that planting hole of a

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tomato or a marigold or a pepper plant, days are

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all going to almost within you know, days, absorb into

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that soil, the watering comes in, it starts to leach

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those nutrients right into your plants and really provides them

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of the calcium boost they need. Right.

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Speaker 3: That calcium is going to last pretty much all growing

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season once you put it into the planting hole.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, it is. And so how much should you use?

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I mean, this is the great question. So here's here's

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our roll of thumb and what We've been doing this

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for a while now with a lot of success. And

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so what's the old saying, When something works, you know,

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don't break it.

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Speaker 3: Right, right exactly?

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Speaker 2: So for eggshell powder, for our vegetable plants, tomatoes and peppers, cucumbers, zucchini,

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you name it, we put i'd say two to three

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tablespoons in every planting hole.

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Speaker 3: Yeah. I think for the larger vegetable plants or the

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larger flowers, I think, you know, two to three tablespoons

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is more than plenty smaller plants, pansies you know you

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can put Oh yeah, you can put a.

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Speaker 2: Little bit in. You're absolutely right. And again we talk

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about this. Why is this called the simple garden life?

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Because sometimes people make gardenings so difficult and so frustrating

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for themselves that it's not fun. And you have to

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make it fun. So for us, when we say two

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to three, we really mean that. It's not like if

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you put three tablespoons, your tomato plants are going to

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produce six point eight pounds of tomatoes and two tablespoons

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are going to have some blossom rot. It's not the

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way it works. This helps your soil over time, but

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grind him. It helps your soil much more immediately in

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the same growing season and can help your plants just

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develop far better with far less health issues. And again

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it's not just beyond the blossom. Calcium also plays a huge,

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huge role in that initial plant health for all of

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those annual plants we're talking.

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Speaker 3: About, right, And it also helps with soil to absorb

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when your plants are having difficulty absorbing calcium because they

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are too wet, Giving that calcium boost helps your plants tremendously.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, and we talk about planting holes. That's where people

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really need to concentrate their efforts. So many people get

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composts and worm castings and all the great things that

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you really do need, and they spread them all over

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their garden and tilimin or they think that's going all over.

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Concentrate those things, just like this ey powder, right in

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your planting holes, because that's where the roots of your

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plants are going to grow and they're going to take

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them that season. So when you know in our planting

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holes we put composts, we put coffee grounds, we put eggshells,

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we put worm castings, those are all in the planting

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hole because they're helping that plant that year right where

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it needs it the most.

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Speaker 3: Right at the roots. But also use the eggshell powder

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on top of our soil after we plant.

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Speaker 2: And why is that? It's a It's a great cause

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because what happens when it rains.

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Speaker 3: Right, it's a slow release calcium boost to your plants.

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Speaker 2: Yes, every time it rains or you water, that calcium

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is leaching down into that soil and helping out. And

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again we might put a tea spoon around the top

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of each plant. And if we have enough, we sometimes

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you know, it depends how many eggs I've had.

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Speaker 3: That you eat a lot of eggs, we're good.

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Speaker 2: So again, just take it like that. It just realized

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that when you use the powder versus bits and pieces,

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you're going to get a lot more. Now, I want

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to say something before we go. There still is a

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use for the bits and pieces. And this is what

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we have talked about. We're like, wait a minute, wait

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a minute. You're said, grind, grind, grind. But if you

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have a lot of problems with slugs broken eggshells around

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the rims of your plants. When I say the rims,

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you plant on your top and you circle a little

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maybe three inches out and you crush up some eggshells

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around there. That can actually help prevent slug damage because

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with the slugs cannot crawl across that without getting cut,

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which drives their skin out and they can't make it

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to your plant. So there still was a use for

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some crushed eggshells. And yes they'll break down eventually and

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help put some soil in there as well, but for

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the majority of the use of it, you want to

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use that ground.

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Speaker 3: Powder, right And for those that don't eat eggs, there's

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some people that candied eggs, like me because I have

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an egg allergy, or people that just don't choose eat eggs,

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you can still utilize eggs in your eggshells in your garden.

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For many years, we would go to our local diner,

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breakfast diner and ask them to save their eggshells for us.

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And we would go there every Saturday with our five

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gallon bucket and switch it out and they would give

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us their eggs shells from their breakfast and we would

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just replace them with a clean bucket.

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Speaker 2: I'm pretty sure they gave us their egg shells, their potato, peelium.

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Speaker 3: And coffee gross.

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Speaker 2: All their coffee we did, and all we had to

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do was take them a five gallon bucket every Saturday

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and we would go in for breakfast and they would

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hand us a full one. We would like we, you know,

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had won the lottery. Taking it home. We got a

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lot of strange looks though, yeah we did, but you

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know what it was. It was great because you were

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saving that from going to a landfill and it was

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really helping. That was until we got our own chickens

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and could start doing our own things. But Mary's right,

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there's always a way to find these these soil amendments

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that that don't have to be so costly. You know,

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you can make your own compost, you can go out

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and find coffee grounds, you can go out and find

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eggshells even if you don't have them. But the important

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thing is, and what we hope you take home today

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as we wrap this up, is that egg shells can

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be so beneficial to helping your soil and helping your plants,

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but it's best to always grind them down as much

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as possible and leave you with this this last thing. Yes,

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if you're asking and you're thinking, well, wait a minute,

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I put eggshells in my compost, ben, Yeah, if you

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if you grind them up, they're going to break down

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that much faster, and that calcium is going to.

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Speaker 3: Leach into there as well one percent, and they're beneficial

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in all areas of gardening.

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Speaker 2: All right, so I think we've wrapped up our second

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podcast of the season. We're really enjoying getting back into

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this and we hope you are too. Again. You can

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always email us at the farm at owgarden dot com

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with your questions. We're always happy to answer. We try

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to get back with everybody within at least a day

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or two. We enjoy it and we get a lot

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of emails from it, and you can follow us at

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simplegardenlife dot com. I'm Jim Competti for Marycompetti and Mary.

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What do we always say at the end?

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Speaker 3: Happy gardening? Everyone?

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Speaker 2: That's right, Happy gardening. We'll see you next time. We

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hope you've enjoyed this episode. Subscribe to the Simple Garden

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podcast on iTunes, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or most of your

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favorite podcast apps. You can also head over to simplegardenlife

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dot com where you can listen and read all of

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the show notes to every episode and.

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Speaker 3: If you have any questions, any ideas for show topics,

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or if you want to share your favorite garden tip,

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email us at the Farm at owgarden dot com.

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Speaker 2: Until next time, Thanks everyone,