You've probably heard the title of this post more often in its reversed state "From Garden To Kitchen."  I have too and usually that's how I think. Food and herbs from the garden get brought inside, prepared, then enjoyed for dinner. But if you think about it, the phrase works both ways and really makes a lot of sense. "From garden to kitchen" and "from kitchen to garden."  As a gardener, whether you are experienced or a novice, you probably have an idea of what I'm talking about.  So what is in the kitchen that can help your garden?

Let's start with my favorite and maybe one of the most useful things in the kitchen that I use in my garden: coffee! Coffee is great, I love that first hot cup of coffee in the morning. Sugar only - no cream for me. What can you use coffee for in the garden?  Well the obvious first guess would be compost.  It is awesome in the compost pile mixed in with all those other vegetable scraps.  A little bit of this, a little bit of that. But do you have azaleas, rhododendrons, blueberries, or other acid loving plants?  Then the diluted left over last half a cup in the carafe coffee makes a great low nitrogen fertilizer.  I just dilute the left over coffee by filling up the carafe with water then run outside (or walk to avoid spills) and water my blueberries. I've also been known to spread the coffee grounds just underneath the mulch for the blueberries. Coffee doesn't contain phosphorus or potassium so you may want to supplement with other natural fertilizers like bone meal to balance the nutrition all out.

How about eggs? I prefer them scrambled but my wife loves them poached. It doesn't really matter because the egg shells are what the garden wants. Crushed eggshells area good deterrent for slugs around hostas. Sprinkling the crush shells all around the base of the plants creates a jagged surface for the slugs to slime across - and they don't like it!  Eggshells also contain calcium which is good for plants susceptible to blossom end rot.

Vinegar is an interesting organic chemical to use in the garden. It's valuable as a cleaner but also as a weed killer. Typical grocery store vinegar is only about 5% strength which doesn't do much the first time around as a weed killer. It will damage the leaves and foliage but the plant may need repeated treatments to finish it off.  Higher concentrations of vinegar can be used but be extremely careful that you don't spray plants you don't want to damage. I highly advise waiting for a calm, not breezy day to spray any chemicals in the garden.

Want a sure fire way to kill a weed? Use your tea kettle!  Boiling water is sure to take out anything it touches. It's important to let the boiling water seep down into the root system to prevent the weed from regenerating foliage.  Grasses with runners can be tricky since the central plant may be in one place while a piece of it may have rooted elsewhere. Boiling water is excellent agent for killing weeds between paving stones or rocks.  You can do the same thing with your leftover pasta water.  Or if you choose let the pasta water cool then water something with it!  If you cook vegetables in water without salt consider watering your plants with it too. The cooking process causes nutrients to leach into the water that you can put back into the soil when you water.  Salt can kill plants so if you salted it during cooking don't use the water for plants.

I'm also a big fan of reusing plastic containers for starting vegetables, herbs, and even cuttings. I can't tell you how many yogurt containers I've reused for our seedlings! I've lost count!

Of course the be all and end all of all kitchen to garden techniques is good old compost!  If you don't have a bin just start a pile in a secluded backyard location.  You'll keep organic matter in your yard and you'll stop wasting kitchen waste by sending it to the dump. I don't have a fancy bin, just some old pallet screwed together to hold the compost in place. Works like a charm! I rarely worry about balancing the green and brown materials. Usually I just dump anything we have that is suitable for composting in the bin.  I try to add at least one bag of grass clippings to the compost each time I mow to really heat up the pile with green material.

What do you use from your kitchen in your garden?

Leave a comment and let us know!