Great Gardening Ideas For Your Used Coffee Grounds - Garden Plants and Gardening Forum

GrowGirl · 05-28-2008, 05:05 PM

Great Gardening Ideas For Your Used Coffee Grounds By Jeanie Mailliard

We are big believers and followers of organic farming and gardening. But alongside that we also enjoy a cup of really GOOD coffee. This ends up in a pretty large pile of used coffee grounds from our plungers by the end of the week. We personally like plunger coffee better than the drip filter stuff. The eco-nature of the our lifestyle negates the use of electric percolators etc and the plunger lets us each control how strong we want the blend! This also leaves a really course ground coffee which we need to dispose of on the island.

So what to do with the used grounds? Well we collect them all in a special bucket and transfer them up to our organic farm and garden. Luckily with the volume of farming and gardening done by Jeanie and Josefa, these grounds never go to waste!

Here are some tips for making great use of those otherwise wasted resources. (I wonder what Starbucks does with its daily tonnes of used grounds?)

Throw them directly in to your garden

Coffee grounds can be thrown directly into your gardens and vegetable beds as a side dressing for vegetables, roses and other plants. Coffee grounds are high in nitrogen, but be a bit careful not to overload one spot as they are also pretty acidic. Adding other brown material such as leaves and grass cutting to the mulch will help keep a more balanced pH.

Mixing coffee grounds in your compost

Coffee grounds act as a green material with carbon-nitrogen (C-N) ratio of 20-1. They make an excellent addition to your compost, along with other vegetable and salad kitchen waste.

Combined with other composting material such as leaves, straw and cut grass, coffee grounds generate heat and will speed up the composting process. Grounds should be no more than 25% of any one compost pile's content, otherwise the balance is wrong and the system doesn't work as well.

Using coffee grounds in a worm bin

Worms fed with coffee grounds combined with the normal composting materials will flourish! They grow faster and break down the materials faster. maybe it's all that good caffeine speeding them about!

---------------

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imp · 06-19-2008, 09:35 PM

We also use coffee grounds ( and our used filters) in the compost heap, and like it well enough to add it in in bulk when we turn over ground, along with the compost. Seems to aid the water retention a bit and yes, the tomatoes love it.

Starbucks and many other coffee places will give gardeners the coffee grounds if you ask- and at Starbucks, you get a large bag of them! Nice to get something free that is so useful in the garden.

mangus · 12-06-2008, 10:11 AM

I always put my coffee grounds to use and whatever else I can. Great post! I never knew they worked so great for worm beds. I'll have to give that a try.

jmealing · 04-26-2009, 12:21 PM

We have gotten excellent cooperation from Starbucs employees as far as have them save coffee grounds for us. Just leave a plastic bucket with your name and phone number. Caution - you need to pick them up every few days, depending on the store location. We have one in our nearest Kroger and have to pick up every two to three days. A big store would probably need to be visited more often.
Happy Gardening.

Agapanthus · 05-06-2009, 01:14 AM

I must really try this out - this is a great tip.
I am always willing to try when it means less wastage.

Gardening · 07-11-2009, 02:16 AM

Very nice and useful post about coffee grounds. I use coffee grounds around my hybrid tea roses, and I also put coffee grounds under my hydrangeas, to make the blooms really bright blue. Thanks for your tips.

digitals2_t4 · 07-28-2009, 03:10 PM

Really good information..thanks

More Information

lilypotter · 08-27-2009, 01:46 AM

Good post.Really informative. I never knew that coffee ground can act as good compost. Really great post.

05-28-2008, 05:05 PM	#1
GrowGirl Moderator Join Date: Sep 2007 Posts: 364	Great Gardening Ideas For Your Used Coffee Grounds Great Gardening Ideas For Your Used Coffee Grounds By Jeanie Mailliard We are big believers and followers of organic farming and gardening. But alongside that we also enjoy a cup of really GOOD coffee. This ends up in a pretty large pile of used coffee grounds from our plungers by the end of the week. We personally like plunger coffee better than the drip filter stuff. The eco-nature of the our lifestyle negates the use of electric percolators etc and the plunger lets us each control how strong we want the blend! This also leaves a really course ground coffee which we need to dispose of on the island. So what to do with the used grounds? Well we collect them all in a special bucket and transfer them up to our organic farm and garden. Luckily with the volume of farming and gardening done by Jeanie and Josefa, these grounds never go to waste! Here are some tips for making great use of those otherwise wasted resources. (I wonder what Starbucks does with its daily tonnes of used grounds?) Throw them directly in to your garden Coffee grounds can be thrown directly into your gardens and vegetable beds as a side dressing for vegetables, roses and other plants. Coffee grounds are high in nitrogen, but be a bit careful not to overload one spot as they are also pretty acidic. Adding other brown material such as leaves and grass cutting to the mulch will help keep a more balanced pH. Mixing coffee grounds in your compost Coffee grounds act as a green material with carbon-nitrogen (C-N) ratio of 20-1. They make an excellent addition to your compost, along with other vegetable and salad kitchen waste. Combined with other composting material such as leaves, straw and cut grass, coffee grounds generate heat and will speed up the composting process. Grounds should be no more than 25% of any one compost pile's content, otherwise the balance is wrong and the system doesn't work as well. Using coffee grounds in a worm bin Worms fed with coffee grounds combined with the normal composting materials will flourish! They grow faster and break down the materials faster. maybe it's all that good caffeine speeding them about! --------------- Matava is an eco adventure getaway offering you a fun and unique blend of cultural experiences and adventure activities in the environmentally pristine and remote island of Kadavu in Fiji. Matava - Home Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Jeanie_Mailliard Last edited by GrowGirl; 05-28-2008 at 05:07 PM.

04-26-2009, 12:21 PM	#4
jmealing Green Gardener Join Date: Apr 2009 Posts: 1	Coffee grounds from Starbucs We have gotten excellent cooperation from Starbucs employees as far as have them save coffee grounds for us. Just leave a plastic bucket with your name and phone number. Caution - you need to pick them up every few days, depending on the store location. We have one in our nearest Kroger and have to pick up every two to three days. A big store would probably need to be visited more often. Happy Gardening.

05-06-2009, 01:14 AM	#5
Agapanthus Green Gardener Join Date: Apr 2009 Location: Cape Town Posts: 11	I must really try this out - this is a great tip. I am always willing to try when it means less wastage. __________________ Home garden with orchids and vegetable gardening

07-11-2009, 02:16 AM	#6
Gardening Green Gardener Join Date: Jul 2009 Posts: 10	Very nice and useful post about coffee grounds. I use coffee grounds around my hybrid tea roses, and I also put coffee grounds under my hydrangeas, to make the blooms really bright blue. Thanks for your tips. __________________ Gardening For Dummies

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06-19-2008, 09:35 PM	#2
imp Green Gardener Join Date: Jun 2008 Location: North Texas Posts: 12	We also use coffee grounds ( and our used filters) in the compost heap, and like it well enough to add it in in bulk when we turn over ground, along with the compost. Seems to aid the water retention a bit and yes, the tomatoes love it. Starbucks and many other coffee places will give gardeners the coffee grounds if you ask- and at Starbucks, you get a large bag of them! Nice to get something free that is so useful in the garden.

12-06-2008, 10:11 AM	#3
mangus Green Gardener Join Date: Dec 2008 Posts: 2	I always put my coffee grounds to use and whatever else I can. Great post! I never knew they worked so great for worm beds. I'll have to give that a try.

07-28-2009, 03:10 PM	#7
digitals2_t4 Banned Join Date: Jul 2009 Posts: 4	Really good information..thanks More Information

08-27-2009, 01:46 AM	#8
lilypotter Green Gardener Join Date: Jun 2009 Posts: 8	Good post.Really informative. I never knew that coffee ground can act as good compost. Really great post.