What to do with coffee grounds? Put ground coffee in the garden? Can adding morning coffee grounds to your garden soil help or hurt you?
Have you noticed bags of used coffee in your favorite cafe (Starbucks has some)? Have you tried to put coffee grounds in the compost? Why not use coffee grounds as fertilizer … is this a good idea?
ground coffee in the garden
Don’t even think about throwing away those used java pitches! They are as valuable as the coffee you have made. Below are 7 ways to use coffee grounds in the garden.
1 – Ground coffee as mulch
Coffee grounds are an excellent ground mulch, especially for plants that like acids.
Which plants like coffee grounds? Plants such as blueberries, blueberries, holly, azaleas, rhododendrons, june berries, gardenia scents, flowering camellias, trilliums and begonias.
It’s a bit ironic, but the dark brown remains of your morning coffee will give your hydrangea flowers a vibrant blue!
Evergreen trees also like acid soils, as do dogwoods, magnolias, willow oaks and beech trees.
Garden vegetables that prefer slightly acid soil include peppers (all types), radishes, sweet potatoes, eggplant, tomato plants, parsley, rhubarb, and potatoes (even if the soils of the ‘Idaho are essentially alkaline).
When you mulch with coffee, spread a layer about half an inch thick, otherwise your soils will mold too easily and could make your soil too acidic.
2 – Add used coffee for the plants and your compost pile
Adding and mixing old coffee grounds into the soil is a good way to strengthen the soil structure. The best place to start is to add coffee grounds and cut grass to the compost heap.
Why is coffee grounds good for plants? Coffee is a good source of nitrogen (contains 1.5% by weight) and you can include it in the nutrition of the plant thanks to the coffee grounds compost.
Adding coffee grounds to the compost (also coffee filters) adds nitrogen fertilizer to the compost.
However, it is also important to keep in mind the acidity of the coffee grounds. Balance this with garden scraps, kitchen scraps and a good source of calcium carbonate, such as wood ash or lime, to balance the pH and add phosphorus.
Keep in mind that the fungus growing on coffee tends to consume a lot of nitrogen. Again, it’s a good idea to have a good mix of organic matter and other matter in your compost heap or your compost heap.
The video below shows how much coffee you can use in the garden.
3 – Used ground coffee for plants offers a protective ring
Slugs and snails attack your strawberries? Snails munching on your lettuce in the vegetable patch? Do ants eat your tomatoes?
Besides using coffee grounds for soil improvement, you can also use coffee grounds to protect plants, as a ditch protects a castle.
Place a protective ring of used coffee grounds around these vulnerable plants. Or try adding diatomaceous earth to control the pests.
Slugs and snails, worms and other common garden pests do not like the smell, acidity or texture of coffee grounds and are repelled by them. Best of all, using this simple, natural solution can help you avoid the use of toxic pesticides around your food!
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