Feed Your Grass & Garden with Coffee Grounds!
I'm a coffee lover & gardener.
I have a love for both that transcends time and Apple products. I'm a slave to both...a happy, caffeinated slave.
I feel like I just stumbled upon the holy grail! I learned something new (to me) that blends two of my greatest joys in this world into one big, fat benefit!
Coffee is a gardener's dream...
and a composter's best friend!
What makes coffee grounds so dreamy as a soil amendment is the amount of nutrients they contain and how they're absorbed. In a study done on Starbucks coffee grounds, it was found that the grounds contained 2.28 % nitrogen, 0.06 % phosphorous and 0.6% potassium. Magnesium and copper were also found in trace amounts. Over time, the grounds act as a slow release fertilizer with some of the nutrients available immediately and some available over a period of time.
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Coffee grounds can be directly dug in around acid loving plants and for non acid loving plants...compost coffee grounds first, then dig in.
Coffee grounds make excellent lawn fertilizer! Just rake it in every month or two.
They're also a natural slug repellent and they attract earth worms who love to eat them. This leads to worm castings which is an incredible soil amendment! To think I've been dumping my grounds in the trash all this time?!
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On an olfactory note, fertilizing with coffee makes for a pleasant smelling yard, much more so than manure.
Yet another plus? Cats don't like the smell of coffee...so if you have a cat that's using your beds as a litter box, scatter coffee grounds!
A wise gardener once told me that he never feeds his plants, he feeds his soil which in turn feed the plants.
This is the reward of composting, food for your soil.
In addition to the great results your garden receives there's also great satisfaction in returning a portion of our garbage back into the earth.
Where can you find more coffee grounds for all your fertilizing and composting needs?
Your local Starbucks bags their grounds and are happy to give them away FREE, just ask them. Most local coffee shops are willing to save grounds too, although you may have to provide a bin for them to use. Those of you who have coffee makers in the office, train your friends to save the grounds for you...this is an excellent trend, one less bag of garbage makes a difference!
Just do it! You will thank yourself in the long run. Not only does it do good things for your garden but it smells great too!
Just do it! You will thank yourself in the long run. Not only does it do good things for your garden but it smells great too!
Rebecca
posted by Rebecca @ 11:23 PM
14 Comments
14 Comments:
Very good information!
I'm excited about all the possibilities! Spread the word and the grounds :)
i recently found out the grounds can be used as a mulch for potted plants :)
Absolutely! Just don't apply too thickly or water won't penetrate. Another rule of thumb, if your particular houseplant has a dormant period, withhold any kind of fertilizer (including coffee grounds) until the appropriate time. And, you can water with diluted brewed coffee, just make sure it's cooled :) Thanks for including our friend, the houseplant in this discussion!
Coffee grounds, banana peels, and crushed egg shells = the best ever soil amendments/compost! Azalea's love 'em! Good for roses too!
Awesome, I was just reading about this in a gardening book yesterday, "You Grow Girl" by Gayla Trail. Really cool info, I didn't know you could ask Starbucks for them either, thanks for sharing!
I throw mine beside the front porch all winter and dig up in the spring, already mixed with soil, just need to add compost. The window box flowers perc, lol, right up with a few added spoonfuls.
Great idea!
does this really help with cats?
can you put it straight on the yard or do i need to run it thru a maker first
I crush egg shells (wait until you have 6 egg containers of them or so, and use your blender) until I get a coffee can full of them and put them in the garden in the spring when we're digging it up. I lift out the coffee grounds in their filters and put them in a bowl to dry and then take them out to the rose gardens or the vegetable garden and in the winter when I can't walk out to those areas I throw them out on the snow that's on the grass. I'm sure the neighbors think I'm crazy. I also cut into small pieces the parts of vegetables and fruits that we don't eat or that are going bad and they go out with the coffee grounds. Crushing peanut shells and throwing out sunflower seed shells are also used. It makes me feel really good to re-use food this way.
I have been saving my coffee grounds and using them as soil amendments for years. My Horticulture teacher in High School taught us that trick!
Should I convert the coffee grounds into compost first...???? Or is is ok if I just dig and add them into the flower pots...???? :)
Happy New Year everybody...!!!! :)
I never composted them before spreading :)
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