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Mussel shell uses
diggingdoris
Posts: 513
in Talkback
I've just tried mussels for the first time and now that we've got a big bowl of empty shells I wondered if anyone had ideas on what I can use them for in the garden. My only thought was to crush them and sprinkle round the plants that the slugs like, same as I do with egg shells. But I wondered if there were other uses.
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I made a 5 storey insect hotel from wooden pallets and then made a roof garden which I planted with sedums so the flowers would attract insects. I used a gravel mulch to finish it off with assorted seashells, including mussels, upturned so they would catch rain water for the insects. You could do something similar in a sink garden or some other container.
Good for chickens when crushed.
IMO windchimes are a thing of awfulness if you have to live next door to them. Maybe that's just me!
obelix; can we give this insect hotel a good rating on these travel websites? It looks sooo smart.
Edd & Artjak
Cockle shells, crab carapaces and other marine mollusc shells (whelks etc) would all serve equally were as mini-reservoirs for visiting insects, birds etc through the summer months! I can't spare the full pallet 'footprint' in my limited mid-terrace garden. However, I might contrive something similar but in a vertical sense with the pallet rawl-bolted to a limestone boundary wall on the south side of the plot...?
OOh David, can we see pics?
obelixx...I've a picket line of ladybirds now demanding better living accommodation...
Thank you for all the kind comments. I have a big enough garden with pasture to that side and arable land behind which get a certain amount of chemicals so I garden organically and have been doing what I can to help birds and insects insects, especially bees.
The birds and probably some rodents have been picking at the pine cones and sticks so it all needs refilling this spring ready for the next lot of résidents.
Friends of mine have tucked this under a conifer hedge :-
You can also tuck insect shelters into walls and crevices and I saw a garden at Chelsea where a dividing and seating wall within a garden incorporated blocks for insect homes, a bit like in Edd's photo but more organic in form. Gabons could also be used if stuffed with appropriate material and they come in all sizes, even ones small enough to hang on a wall.