i trip to home depot last week revealed that enough nutrient rich garden soil to fill the whole plot would cost about $80. so i moved to plan C...C for cheap. after some reasearch i found that coffee grind and egg shells are good for the soil. Off to starbucks i went.
every starbucks store has a grinds bucket. just ask and you can get a bag full of grinds. they only save the dry espresso grinds and they are perfect. http://www.starbucks.com/aboutus/compost.asp
next, egg shell. i tried to tackle this on my on. my kids love deviled eggs. however, crushed shells from a dozen egg comes out to be only about a tablespoon of powder. so i went back out in search of egg shells. the dinner down the street was happy to save their shells from saturday morning breakfast for me. 
i rinsed and microwave the shells to get rid of any salmonella and the kids crushed them up into about 8 cups of egg shell powder.
so i spread three bags of coffee grinds, egg shells and a few bags of manure and humus in the garden. out of the three, coffee, eggs and poo, i was glad to find that the coffee smell over powered. the whole yards smell like a coffee house. my hands and feet are still stained from the grinds.
and then i plants...our seeds sprouted pretty well. corn, carrots, cucumbers, peas and green beans...spinach is still sprouting...it looked kind of puny once i was all done but know or at least i hope it will flourish in no time.
