Old-fashioned gardening is essentially what we call organic gardening today. Using home remedies to raise fruits, vegetables and flowers is making a comeback. It’s helping us save money and providing us with a supply of healthy food. So, this week I’d like to share some tips — some old-fashioned ones and maybe, a new thought or two:

•Save your eggshells, rinse, dry and crush them up as finely as you can, and scatter them around on the soil of a slug’s favorite plant. They will avoid crawling over the shells to get to the plant, as will other soft-bellied pests.

•These same eggshells will help keep feral cats from using your containers and garden soil as a sandbox.

•Eggshells take quite a long time to compost, which make them a great way to help break up clay. They also add calcium carbonate, a natural fertilizer, to the soil.

•Old-fashioned gardening included companion planting — plants that aided vegetables in one way or another. An example: planting sunflowers near cucumbers for sweeter-tasting cukes.

•Plant various types of lettuce around the base of tomatoes and you will have lettuce even when the heat of summer comes on — also intersperse sweet basil plants along with the lettuce.

•Lettuce and herbs will work as a mulch and help keep the soil at the root base of the tomato plant cool and conserve moisture.

•When watering the tomato plant, these companions will help prevent soil borne disease from splashing up on the plant.

•Marigolds have been a favorite companion in vegetable gardens for as long as anyone can remember — and they help repel certain garden pests. They produce a substance called alpha-terthienyl, which helps reduce root-knot nematodes in the soil.

•Root-knot nematode damage is difficult to diagnose at first because it begins mainly underground. It compromises the roots by forming large and (on some plants) small knotty growths so the plant can hardly draw enough water to sustain its foliage, blooms and fruit. Above-ground symptoms include wilting and disfiguring. Adding more water does not help because of the damage done to the root. Fortunately, plant scientists are coming up with resistant plants our great-grandparents would have loved to have had.

•Garlic is another great companion plant. The Old Farmer’s Almanac tells us that “garlic is easy to grow and produces numerous bulbs after a long growing season. It is frost tolerant. Beyond its intense flavor and culinary uses, ‘the stinking rose’ is good in the garden as an insect repellent and has been used for centuries as a home remedy.”

•You can purchase garlic sets at nurseries but also, you can plant garlic from the grocery store — just make sure the bulbs are labeled organic. Break the cloves apart and plant as you would any bulb.

•Mother Earth News tells us an easy way to plant garlic: “Choose a sunny site, and loosen the planting bed to at least 12 inches deep. Thoroughly mix in a 1-inch layer of mature compost. In acidic soil, also mix in a light dusting of wood ashes. Wait until just before planting to break bulbs into cloves. Poke the cloves into the ground 4 inches deep and 6 to 8 inches apart, with their pointed ends up. Cover the planted area with 3 to 5 inches of organic mulch, such as hay or shredded leaves.” Locate them in the garden so they will be companion plants next spring.