Used Coffee Grounds as a Plant Fertilizer?

Digger, I literally forget...I can have gloves on, pull them off for some reason and still reach out and grab a handful of mulch or a dratted blackberry vine....sometimes my focus becomes so narrowed I forget what else is going on....DUH

That's bad for you . LOL I do have loads of blackberry to get off my fence . I'll take a spading fork to lift the roots and pull them out . This is the third year i've not done it and works better after some rain . None yet .
BTW , I saw two light sprinkles in Tex since Nov 1st last year . A friend down there says no rain yet !

Yeah, looks like another drought year for some parts of the country. We have gotten rain, but not as much as usual.

I have more than enough rain I would send your way if I could. lol.

That's what I like about the area east and south of Portland . Love the showers and mist . Always damp and drains fast in the volcanic soil

MrsLidwell, I really feel for you with your son's being a brittle diabetic! I've seen TV programs where they've trained "service dogs" to become very sensitive to a diabetic's low blood sugar. These dogs stay with their diabetic masters 24/7. They can smell when the blood sugar gets low, and it even awakens the dog at night. The dog then goes to awaken someone (usually a parent when the diabetic is a child), the parent then goes to check the child's blood sugar level, and administers the treatment needed (whatever food works best for that child.) You might check it out to see if over time this would be a solution for you and your son. You could start on this by Googling service dogs, diabetic alert/response dogs, hypoglycemic alert dogs, therapetics.org, for starters. Hope this is helpful to you. Let me know what you find out, if you will....

yeah! i've seen that too! dogs are just amazing. :)

oh no hun, hes not considered a brittle diabetic.. just an energetic kid LOL! hes never been hospitalized for a hypoglycemic reaction or diabetic ketoacidosis (well, not since his diagnosis date lol). Theres just SO much involved in maintaining good blood sugar levels for anyone, it can get even trickier with the younger ones because of sporatic growth spurts, illnesses, and well, just being a kid and running around like kids should! LOL Feels kinda like a bad game of catch-up! LOL! Always catching up with bgs HAHA! Hes good though, doing much better now that hes been on an insulin pump for a little over a year. Yeah, I did actually come across a couple of websites regarding those dogs (and OMG are they amazing!!!). One day i might consider it, but right now we live in a place where we cant have pets... not to mention, those dogs are VERY expensive!

I just stay awake a lot to make SURE no emergency issues will happen. Ive saved his little tail a few times from staying up all night checking his bgs and catching a 34 blood sugar early enough to treat :) Hes not brittle by any means though. Im just an over protective, worried mama who has done WAY more research on his condition that is probably good for me LOL!

That's what Mothers are .

I did not think he was a brittle diabetic. Little children just need lots of checking. You're a great mom and a great caregiver. Pretty soon he'll be able to do checks himself as well as recognize warnings. It'll be good; you'll see.

This is not exactly on topic, but for your info dump coffee grounds in standing water--caffeine confuses mosquito larva and they drown. It works.

I have a wadeing pool with water for the deer and doubt a little coffee would hurt them . Next one goes in there . Would have put a goldfish in there but a coon would get it or a cat .

Coffee grounds sprinkled around your carrots keep the bugs away, too (carrotflies, root weevils, etc.) Useful, aren't they?

I do find it a bit perplexing that something I enjoy so much has such "repellant" powers....grin

Hi Digger....how's Georgia springtime going for ya?

Hi Moon . Getting ready to meet some more D G'ers. This has been a fun spring . We need to do it again , but spend some more time together , and not so hot next time so we can enjoy . Are the maples still doing ok?

They are doing well. My next door neighbor loves maples and pointed out a number of times that I had two of the same...GRIN. I finally broke down and let him have one this spring. You would have thought I gave him gold....LOL.. He was like a kid with a new toy.

Glad you are having fun...look forward to getting together again.

Think I'll put some around my hosta .I was gifted yesterday with one that will have giant leaves . How do they do in your area ?

They grow like pretty weeds here Sally. My friend in Illinois just divided some of her giant green ones and is sending me some. I am trying to rework my big shade area and get rid of the commelina from hades...grin

If I could keep them watered in Tex , I take some back with me this fall .

Hopefully this nasty drought will abate by then. I told DH when it started....gee, years ago. not to even look at the water bill...it would only make him sad...lol.

I mulched my strawberries with coffee grounds. I try to get as much as I can, even by rescuing grounds from k-cups. http://katejardiniere.blogspot.com/2011/05/i-compost-and-coffee-grounds.html

Cute blog, Kate. I too had terrible dirt and in some areas it's still that way but by far most if it has been amended successfully. I use coffee grounds as well as compost, aged chicken manure and the lasagna gardening method attracts LOADS of worms. Apparently newspaper is high on their "food chain" and is a major weed deterrent. Some parts of my garden I didn't even need to use my little garden trowel, I just moved the mulch out of the way, tore what was left of the newspaper and used my had to move the dirt around. I live in Georgia folks, need I say more? I was totally impressed! My tomatoes were about 4" when I planted them on Good Friday and just to make sure my husband the tomato freak had some tomatoes as soon as possible we bought one plant from a nursery that was about 14" high. My plants that I started have just about caught up with the nursery plant and are so healthy!! Woohoo!!! We buried 4" PVC pipes between the plants ( we previously drilled holes in around the bottom of the pipe) and they're sticking up out the ground vertically. My husband made them tall enough to hold 2 gallons of water each and we just keep water in the pipes so we don't splash the leaves while watering. So far it works great. Good luck on your garden Kate (from a transplanted Buckeye...Ohio born and bred)

My best toms were watered with buried gallon milk jugs up to the opening , pretty level to the ground between plants and old carpet laid along the row to keep out weeds . I put a half teaspoon of IO_IO_IO in the jugs once every two weeks or so . If anyone does this , be sure to put the lid on the jugs with a tiny hole in it so the water will run out slow through the ice pick holes in the bottom of the jugs . The purpose of the lids is to keep the toads and frogs from getting trapped and die in the jugs .
Dirt , we grow buckeyes here .I'm a transplant too . A bunches of us are . Isn't Georgia beautiful ?

Yes Ma'am, Georgia is BEAUTIFUL! I've lived lots of places across the United States but I think Georgia, North Georgia that is, is one of the most beautiful. Love the mountains in particular. I'm an artist and love gardening so you know I love Dahlonega too! Here are some of my pictures I have done. Usually animals and people mostly. I've done some landscapes and would love to do more....after it's too hot to be in the garden of course! www.allamericanspecialties.com/db I just know we'll meet someday, you sound so nice Digger!

Probably one of the nicest gardener ladies in Northern Georgia....or anywhere for that matter.

M oon , I have a lot of people fooled . What do they say ? Do unto others ? The older you get the more you mind your P's and Q's . Hugs , friend , and thanks .

Mrs. L, my husband is diabetic, and was recently recommended to use a continuous glucose monitor, which is covered by our insurance. I believe there are a couple of manufacturers - he will be trying out the Dexcom brand. The nice thing is, that in addition to being able to see trends in his sugar throughout the day, alarms can be set to notify him if his sugars go too high, or too low. It is very reassuring to know that he (and I) will be awakened in the night if his sugars go too low. I wanted to mention this to you, in case your son's doctor hasn't brought it up, you may ask him/her about it.

Those are wonderful monitors, a friend uses one like that .

Hugs right back to ya Digger. true kindness can't be faked for longer than a minute.....grin

sorry for not responding for so long. things in life got really hectic after the end of april for us. my daughter is currently undergoing lots of tests and visiting a lot of specialists now. her current diagnosis is something called Static Encephalopathy, though it may change to something different (as it can tend to do as we get closer to pinpointing the exact problem, this is just a general diagnosis from what i understand, however, the more reading i do on this, the more it seems as if it is accurate.) Plus we were doing a lot of preparing for the Diabetes Walk we attended yesterday, which I am proud to say that my 6 year old son's team raised over $1,000! And the total for the entire walk reached $25,000!

Anywho, m8, yes, I am well aware of the CGMs, and I have heard lots of wonderful things about them, but, my son is sooooo thin and all muscle, we have a hard enough time finding enough site locations for just his site, adding something else to him would only limit us more at this point in time. Hopefully, as he grows older, he will gain a little more fatty tissue (not toooo much though! LOL!) to be able to use a cgm and the pump. hes my little hard worker, loves doing just about anything in the garden, and you'd be surprised at his little "farm muscles" as he calls them! LOL! His health aide, who is with him from the time he gets on the school bus till the time he gets home, mentioned to me just yesterday that "he definitely has some guns on him, for his age!" LOL! so funny! But yeah, I am keeping that thought in the back of my mind for now, but currently I dont think it would be best for him right now just because we only have a few areas on his body that we are able to put a site without it hitting muscle tissues or causing other problems. Like, we cant use his belly or his legs right now... only his arms and the top of his butt. even with rotating the sites, the previous sites seem to take a bit longer to heal up well before i can put another site relatively close to it without it causing problems. so, for now, i just think it would be best to hold off on that, and our endo feels the same way. im just SO thankful for the pump though, because when I can expect high activity days, i can just easily adjust his basal to lower it so hes not getting so much insulin and will help to prevent a low blood sugar reaction.... or increase it when hes sick to prevent the possibility of ketones (though i havent got that down to a science just yet haha!)

I've included a picture of our team from the walk yesterday in case you all would like to see it, since so many of you have been touched, either directly or indirectly, with diabetes. In the photo is my son (in the grey shirt wearing sunglasses) and daughter (in the yellow shirt wearing sun glasses), my son's aide's grandson, my friends daughter, myself in the front row. then the back row left to right is my sons kindergarden teacher and her son (hiding behind my daughter lol), the head RN nurse at my sons school, a member of the school board, an LPN from my sons school, another teacher at my sons school (she didnt have him in any classes to my understanding, but her FIL who is the member on the school board is type 2 and wanted to come), my MIL in the grey shirt, behind her is my sons aide, and on the end is my friend.

God has truly blessed you and the other children. So well acquainted with diabetes . It has been rampart in my family .

What a great support group. I'm glad you did well.

Can anyone recommend the best flowers for a gardener with physical limitations? I have a small gardener's bench and a helpful husband, and so can give attention to initial planting, but cannot be constantly kneeling or digging up plants at the end of the season. We've started with hostas, daylilies, tulips, daffodyls, hyacinths, crocuses, and flowering shrubs. But parts of the garden are bare after the early spring blooms fall off. What are other good hardy perennials for early summer to mid-fall in Zone 6?

Jardindeville, the attached link has lots of summer to fall blooming perennials. Since I do not know how much space you have or what your growing conditions are, I thought this would give you lots of choices for your garden. I hope you find it helpful.

http://www.midwestgardentips.com/best_performing_perennials_a-c.html

Hi jardindeville,
There are so many wonderful hardy perennials.

You might also consider starting a new thread specifically with what you mentioned in your post. I'm sure you'll get more suggestions than you could ever imagine, plus other gardeners with physical limitations will have a chance to see your thread & give their own suggestions.

That said, here are some of my favorites for later season color:

Hardy Geraniums like the Cranesbill varieties come in all sorts of colors & many bloom from Summer to Mid-Fall... Purple Pillow & Rozanne are two, but there are many others.

Heucheras & Heucherellas are known mostly for their leaves which come in so many colors from Greens & Browns to incredible Multi-colored varieties. It would be impossible to start to list them & there are more new varieties every year so my suggestion would be to go to the Heucheras & Friends forums & start looking at pictures. They also have tiny flowers, usually in Spring. On most of them the flowers aren't the major interest, although some varieties have really pretty flowers that Hummingbirds like.

Daylilies: You can choose them based on the bloom time.

Here are some other great late-blooming perennials: Mums...Asters...Gailardia...
Echinachea (Coneflowers)...Agastache...Campanula...Coreopsis...Rudbeckia (Black Eyed Susans).

Lastly, your didn't mention whether you have Sun, Shade or both & that can make a difference.

Good luck!!

Jardindeville here is the link to Bluestone Perennials Plant Finder. You can put in your planting conditions, Zone, preferences, etc., but be prepared for zillions of perennials listed alphabetically.

http://www.bluestoneperennials.com/b/bp/adv_search_mod.html

There's no obligation to buy anything, but if you choose to, Bluestone is one of DG top Garden Watchdog Nurseries. Although their clearance just ended, they usually have a site-wide clearance at the end of May/beginning of June (most plants are half price!).

Jardineville, due to pain in my back, I do a lot of gardening on the front steps—in containers. My favorites are lilies and heucheras.

Bulbs are easiest, but are seasonal. Asiatic lilies bloom earlier. Ours are just starting now. Oriental lilies generally bloom into August. Dahlias until the first frost. Only the big one need staking, but they all require little maintenance.

There is also the Accessible Gardening forum: http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/f/disabled/all/ Hopefully they have some good tips there.

This message was edited Jun 8, 2011 8:13 PM

Thanks, everyone! This is a great start. We have a fairly good amount of space for a city lot -- both front and back of the house, lots of sun, some shade. We've set up a couple of raised beds for vegetables and would now like to get serious about flowers. Because of a limited budget I'm probably going to start with the Sample Seed Shop for the non-bulb perennials. I've also been searching the site for the best place to buy bulbs at a reasonable price. Does anyone have suggestions?

Hi Mrs. Lidwell,

This is off topic, of sorts, or perhaps from "between the lines" but I love coffee but don't like the "grindies" (nashing my teeth together from over-doing it) and I found something you might like.

I get my coffee BEANS from Smart & Final, their "house brand", for about $9/40oz bag and then I grind the beans FRESH! I've been told that when beans are ground fresh and brewed within TWENTY minutes, and consumed in as short a time, that there are FEWER side effects and NO problems with arthritis. If you want a treat, try Indian Malabar, if you can find it, but ONLY drink ONE cup, as large a cup as you want, BUT be prepared to be up, on the ONE cup, until about 3 am if you drink it by noon the previous day. Drink at noon and be up for 15 hours, PLEASURABLY. I feel like its about 2 in the afternoon but am shocked to see its nearly 3 am on my watch. Coffee can actually be GOOD for you when consumed this way. Grind, brew, and drink the coffee within 20 minutes of grinding!

I found Indian Malabar at the Santa Cruz Brewing Company, Santa Cruz, CA and they also have a retail store that carries it, called Plume's Cafe, in Monterey, CA on the corner of Alvarado and Franklin Streets. I believe you can call them and have it shipped to you unless you plan to visit Monterey any time soon. It costs about $12/pound if it hasn't gone up. But it is WELL worth it!

I'm type II diabetic and have NO CLUE what it is all about since it was brought about as a side effect of some of my other meds. I'm cutting out as much sugar as possible and reading the labels on the mayo and ketchup jars THOROUGHLY. It seems the meanufacturers of our foods add a LOT of sugar and salt to EVERYTHING.

Your an angel ... good luck in your quests ... and YES! Gardening is one of God's gifts to all of us. Being close to nature seems to be the key. Makes us one with the Gaia Consciousness! LOL :-)

My fave plant is the Princess Flower but I live in the desert and I'm told the heat will kill it although I'm tempted to build a greenhouse that will shelter it from the harsh sunlight here and perhaps it will tolerate the heat if it is not combined with direct sunlight. Hibiscus' are my second favorite plants. I use the local cactus plants all through my garden to keep the rodents out of it but still looking for other ways to keep the rabbits and squirrels out of my "jungle". After they bite off the leaves TWICE it seems to poison the plants and they just die.

Darty