Composting with Coffee Grounds
Old coffee grounds are one of the best ways to add nitrogen to your compost pile, which is often a lacking element in urban or suburban composting. They can go right into the compost pail, and just give the pile a bit of a stir when you add the pail with the coffee grounds, to make sure they spread out well in the pile. You want to spread them out not only for the added nitrogen, but because they are great at retaining moisture and keeping your pile active.
It’s hard to generate too much of any brand of coffee grounds from one household unless coffee is all you drink, so don’t be afraid to ask non-composting neighbors for theirs too.
Another plus: they don’t stink when kept in a plastic bag, unlike much other composting material. Remember you can also compost the coffee filters, although cutting them up or shredding them is always a good idea to break the tough fibers down faster.
Coffee Grounds as Fertilizer
Another frequent use of old coffee grounds is as an organic fertilizer. They work well anytime you want more nitrogen and moisture in the soil, such as when you’re digging new planting beds for heavy-feeding vegetables, fruits and flowers.
Save them up yourself, or ask local gas stations, restaurants and coffee shops for their discards if you have big gardening plans. You can mix the coffee grounds right into the soil with a garden rake after you have turned the bed over well. Plant your new seeds or seedlings as usual, and they’ll love the nitrogen, sprouting up fast. If you’re fertilizing container vegetables or houseplants, turn coffee grounds into a gentle liquid fertilizer by diluting it with water in a bottle or jug and shaking it up before each use.
Slugs Be Gone with Coffee Grounds
An unexpected bonus for many gardeners who use coffee grounds as a mulch or soil amendment around nitrogen-loving plants is that coffee keeps away crawling pests, and is especially good at repelling slugs and snails. A border of coffee grounds around plants or gardens is nearly a guarantee of slug-free gardening.
The caffeine in the grounds acts as a poison absorbed through slugs’ and snails’ skin, and they’ll avoid it thoroughly. If you have plants that slugs love, such as lilies, hostas or tender spring bulbs, surround them with some coffee mulch.
Vermicomposting with Coffee Grounds
While the list of substances that can be composted using worms is different from a plain old compost pile, coffee grounds can be used in vermicomposting with as good results as anything. In fact, their gritty texture helps the worms digest other waste.
The principle of worm bins is that the worms eat the scraps you add, then excrete a nice, dark, humus in return. But worms, like birds, have gizzards that require sand, cornmeal or other fine, gritty substances to break down their food.
Coffee grounds serve this function in a worm bin, as well as having a mulching effect on the bedding, which keeps worms moist and happy.
Want to learn more about reusing old coffee grounds?
Check out these Web sites chosen by us for more information on the subject.
The Seattle Post-Intelligencer also gives good advice on coffee grounds in the garden.
Get the rundown on the use of coffee grounds for compost from Master Composter.com.
Learn from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln’s Lancaster County Extension about worm composting.
True story. My twin brother hit his head on one of those old time radiators. Mom put fresh * unused* coffee grinds in his gash and bandaged it. It stopped the bleeding in seconds. Even unused coffee grinds have a purpose other than to be infused in hot water. 🙂
coffee ground are great for house plants also. They love them in the winter.
we use 8 o`clock coffee grounds on our hydrangea plants to turn them blue.
Don’t toss out the grounds just because you don’t have your own garden or flower pot. Give them to your neighbors who do and maybe they’ll share their garden veggies with you for the effort!
You can also ask your local coffee shop or Starbucks fir their old grinds. They always give us a huge bag for free!
Bare spots on your lawn. I mix grounds with grass seed and apply to the area. The coffee grounds help keep the seed moist so that more seed sprouts to help ensure sucess.
Used coffee grinds in the plants not only works well as fertilizer, but also as a cat repellant. (stops cats from using your plant boxes as litter boxes) Epic win !
Thanks for that tip. I feed feral cats and they thank me by digging in my beds ! I’m going to give this a try.
I too have a feral and used my flower beds to potty in.. Put down coffee grounds and…. tahhhh dahhhh… No more kitty in the beds…
I have been using brewed coffee grounds on my garden for years. It is wonderful to know about the cat repellent idea also.
Coffee grounds are an excellent deodrizer. Put them in trash cans or diaper pails and they will absorb foul odors.
I use them on my houseplants also, espcially non flowering as they add nitrogen
How much and how do you add them?
In exchange for daily cleaning of the coffee machine at my office, I take the used coffee grounds home for my compost and gardens. I spread some on the soil around the blueberries and hydrangeas and some I put on the compost pile. The addition of this quantity of grounds has helped to keep the compost “working” better than it has in years.
does anyone know if you can also simply pour unused, cold, leftover black coffee directly onto the soil around plants?? Thanks!
Sure, no problem. As with anything, just be careful that you aren’t dousing one plant with huge amounts of coffee and overdoing it.
We are true believers in using coffee grounds to mix with loosened soil to attract and grow a great worm bed. We always have plenty of worms to fish with every summer.
Central Oregon living is pretty rough on spring gardening,still a lot of cold morning and evening,s.However I have started a worm-garden thanks to meighbor friend. So my compost piles are “looking good” and of course fishing worms,so lots of Coffee grounds each day..fresh horse poo too..
Thanks
Thanks for the info on slugs. Will have to start saving these during the winter not just in the warmer weather.
Love the versatility of coffee grounds. A huge benefit to Gardeners and growers
Thanks for all the great ideas on using coffee grounds!! I wish the weather would get nicer here in Wisconsin so I could start my gardening!
Starbucks saves large bags of used grounds and places them out for those that want them.
Coffee grounds sprinkled in your beds also deter ants. I use this method in our organic garden every year and the ants will find a new home immediately.
Great ideas here….thank you everybody. I don’t know if this was already said, but coffee grinds help to stop feral cats from using your garden beds as kitty litter.
Your link to MasterComposter.com throws a 404 error message.
Great post…very helpful. Thanks! Here’s another I’ve found helpful. Take care, D.
http://Www.redeemyourground.com/redeem-grounds-coffee-grounds/
I also put the coffee grounds around my roses as well, they love them!!!
But a very big down side they are poisonous to dogs
You can put coffee grounds in the dirt with your worms or night crawlers an they will live for months I do every summer .
Grow gourmet mushrooms on coffee grounds! Google it for a zillion how-to’s on websites & Youtube!
I recently asked the local convenience store what they do with their coffee grounds. . . they throw them away. I asked if they would save them for me if I left a bucket for them to fill – – they were willing to work with me. I now pick up a 5 gallon bucket full every 3 days.
I dry some for later use, and
for spreading on the lawn (dry grounds work in a spreader).
I put some in the garden while they are still moist.
I also add water in a bucket to some to water plants.
I am experimenting with the filters as a weed barrier (spread them out and cover with wood chips) around my blueberries.
Neighbors and friends have asked if they could have some too, I have shared several buckets full.
It is all sharing God’s bounty!!!!
Wow thanks for the tips about coffee grounds I will ask around to see if any one has any spare
Do tea leaves act the same as no matter what colour of hydranga I buy it turns pink ,,,,, any help
Gosh … to think so much has been thrown away in the past – now I can share this with my friends as well. Such interesting reading and I’m really grateful – thank you to each and every person sharing their experiences with coffee grounds.
I’m about to make a fresh pot – anyone for a cuppa?
What about unused coffee? We always have a few ounces of coffee left over each day,can that be used in the gardentoo?
We always put our used coffee grounds in our outhouse !
Really helped keep the odor level down!
I’ve read coffee grounds good to repel rabbits…anyone else heard this