If you're anything like me you start your morning with a cup (or a pot) of coffee. It's my favorite way to begin the day and I usually take my last cup outside to enjoy while making my morning gardening rounds. This means the first "kitchen scraps" of the day are coffee grounds. I know a few people who flush this wonderful source of garden magic down the garbage disposal, or worse yet, they throw it away (gasp!). Used coffee grounds are one of the easiest items to reuse in your garden.
1. Add to your compost pile. Just throw them in, filter and all.
2. Add to your vermicomposting bin. Woms have a gizzard (just like chickens) and coffee grounds help them digest food.
3. Use them to fertilize acidic-loving plants such as Azaleas, Rhododendrons, evergrees, and blueberries (to name a few).
4. Coffee grounds are said to repel slugs and snails. Scatter around your plants and you can fertilize and prevent damage at the same time and without the use of chemical products.
5. Keep your cats from using your garden as a potty by spreading coffee grounds and crushed orange peels around your plants.
6. Ants hate coffee grounds. Sprinkle coffee grounds on anthills, around your lawn, and anywhere you see ants forming.
7. Mixing your carrot seeds with dry coffee grounds before planting makes the small seeds easier to sow. Some studies suggest that it may also help to repel root maggots.
8. Use on indoor plants. A small amount scratched in to the soil surface can give your plants a bit of bloost.
9. Coffee grounds make a great mulch for your summer vegetable garden. It's high in nitrogen, making it a wonderful fertilizer for heavy feeders and fast growing vegetables. It also provides phosphorus, potassium, magnesium and copper.
10. Coffee grounds work well as a mulch between pathway pavers. The grounds look beautiful while suppressing weeds and smelling fantastic.
By the way, if you don't drink the last bit of coffee in the pot, don't dump it down the drain-pour it on your plants! Your blueberries (or Rhododendrons) will enjoy it as much as you did.
Be well and happy gardening!
