Topic: Shells

[wivvles]

Mrs Wivvles is a great seafood fan.  We usually have mussels two or three times a month, especially if her mother's staying.  Hence there are usually loads of shells, which I've always just chucked in the bin.

However, if I rinse the shells after cooking, are they suitable for use in the allotment?  My thought is that if I crush them and add them to the soil it would be akin to liming?

[djbrenton]

Might they not be a good slug barrier like eggshell?

[tim]

A lot of effort to crush? And if you don't, we still have mussel shells from 40 years ago!! = Tim

[Marianne]

Wivvles,

When we go abroad, we always tend to bring back the local seashells and put them in certain places in our garden (among the pots).  It looks nice and gives the garden an air of the mediterranean.   ;)

[ajb]

They are sold roughly crushed as a slug-deterring mulch!   

Depending how big they are you could use them whole as a mulch for the top of pots, or maybe just as drainage in the bottom of pots.

[Mrs Ava]

Bunged the greenlipped monster muscle shells on the heap, even tho Tim and others said they would still be there in 100 years time, and low and behold, as I dug my heap, there they were glinting at me in the sunshine!  The kids thought they were buried treasure, brought the darn things back home and made me wash them for them to play with!  Should have just done that in the first place.