Coffee Grounds????

I went to Starbucks today and there was a lady that was asking them for their
used coffee grounds. The worker handed her over a bag that looked like
it weighed nearly 25 pounds of used grounds. She said that she was using
them in her flower garden.

Can anyone tell me the reason for using grounds in a flower garden?

Angela

It is pretty good fertilizer, but a shade acidic. Great for acid loving plants and usable for others if amended with lime.

Coffee grounds seem to be the rage in the Organic Gardening forum on a competing site.

A local gardening guru says it kills slugs! BIG problem in my area.

cool! My husband puts our coffee grounds in our compost bin. Since we already have acid soil, we have to use lime a good bit. I have to grow most acid-loving shade plants *sigh*. But I have a few sunny spots. I stick roses there. This is a shot of Scentimental after I dropped my camera and got fractured pix.



This message was edited Feb 5, 2006 8:47 AM

To my dismay the results and conclusion I was given was that coffee grounds are virtually nuetral. I had by using them near my acid loving shrubs as my pH is 7.3. I do know for sure that worms love them and they will add organic matter though.
Al

I've been saving my coffee grounds all winter, but have saved paper filters and all, because if I try to dump the wet grounds separately into a container, a lot stay stuck to the paper. In the spring I'm going to see how it all comes out; maybe it'll be easy to pull the paper and keep the grounds, or maybe I'll have to chop up the paper and let it rot a bit. Do you coffee-ground users compost paper-and-all, wait till it's all dried and then dump it, or what?

Joan, aka Black and Strong, Please

I put the filter with grounds in a strainer over an old bowl every morning. Next morning it's all dried and move to another old bigger bowl. When the bowl is full take the while thing outside and sprinkle the grounds from the papers one by one. Lots of control and just toss the papers afterwards.

I use "eco-friendly" filters and put them into the compost with the grounds. When I am feeling lazy, I go out onto the deck and dump the grounds (without the filter) out over the side on to the roses down below. We live on 10 secluded wooded acres and a lot of biodegradable things get catapulted out in to the woods. I don't think I could live in the city or even the suburbs again.

I did make one mistake with this practice. I had two old pillows, and I had read that cotton fabric and feathers could both be composted. So I tore up one and composted it and threw the other one into the woods down a slope, as far as I could. Because of the brush, it didn't go far. That was in the fall. Last week, my husband took his car in because the heater wouldn't work. They found a mouse nest made almost entirely of feathers in the air duct! He has never approved of my habit of throwing things into the woods; he says it's "not good stewardship of the land". But I told him, it's all biodegradable. And we have no trash pick up out here in the boondocks. It's got to go somewhere.

LOL! There's biodegradable and then there's trash. You need to get the stuff in contact with the soil and it's microbes before it works. Feathers have to be buried for a looooong time or else chopped. The critters must have thought they had been truly blessed. Jessamine

If my neighbors talked to anyone they would tell ya how Im seen most mornings dumping my coffee grounds over the side of the deck into one of the flower beds. I try to go to starbucks whenever possible and put those grounds into my compost bin. From what little bit of info Ive retained the caffine in the coffee drives the slugs bonkers and eventualy either kills them or makes them not want to go to that area anymore. I started putting them around my hostas with very good resutls but of course they dont work instantaniously. I like the idea that if one of the kids or animals in the neighborhood get into the gardens I dont have to worry about anything except for dirty kids and since I still need to really amend my soil I know that at least little by litte Im doing that too.

Hi, I am fairly new to DG and just found this thread. I have a local coffee shop that saves all of their coffee grounds for me. I have two 5 gal. buckets, I leave one there and go in to change them around on a regular basis. I put the grounds in my compost and wow does my garden love it. Getting all of the filters out can be a drag but they don't look good on the garden and don't decompose fast enough. Oh by the way after I shread important documents I add those to the compost as well. That totally gets rid of them and when the paper is shreaded it decomposes fast. No I haven't tried the filters in the shreader and don't think I will. What a mess that would be.

Joan,
I actually put a paper filter in the basket and then put in a reusable mesh filter in. I can dump that one in a bucket without wasting any. The reusable filter lets a little too much grit thru on it's own. They cost $3 or so.

Al

Al, I like your idea. Something else to add to my Wally World list. LOL

This message was edited Feb 11, 2006 7:56 AM

.. zenpotter ..

Coffee .. was my baby formula long years ago - and it taint changed much since!! .. LOL .. It's not uncommon for us to accumulate a good 39 ounce plastic coffee canister full, of 'used' Folgers grounds within 5 or 6 days. Definitely a wonderful boost to the soil ...

We've just dumped (2) full 5 gallon buckets of our used coffee grounds, along with an adequate helping of composting saw dust - in with the mix of topsoil we scoop from our property - - into one of the new large flower beds we've been working on out in our front yard! Mingled in a few aged banana peels also. When the below freezing temps, the snow, and the ice/frost heaves get through doing their wonderful magic - we're gonna have another batch of some mitey fine soil, I tell ya!

Sure like the idea of using the shredded documents in the garden! (And to think: using our discarded 'hard copies' to 'soften' the dirt!) .. heehee ..

- Magpye

This message was edited Feb 13, 2006 11:50 AM

All of you may already know this, but someone on a thread complained about separating coffee filters to get one to use. I just use two pincher fingers into the center of the filter and lift. One filter comes up very easily instead of trying to get only one from the top edge. If only one person finds this useful, maybe it's not a dumb post.

Louise

hi yall! could some one resolve this ph issue?if some one could take a ph meter out to one of the areas where a lot of grounds have been dumped and are more or less composted and take a reading and post it here it sure would be helpfull.

Once composted, they should be close to neutral. It is the fresh that are slightly acidic as are tea leaves.

thanks FD any idea if there is a nitrogen value in coffee grounds

http://www.sustainableenterprises.com/Business/coffeefert.htm
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/nwgardens/143052_lovejoy09.html

Thanks so much for the links Farmerdill !!!!

I have a question about composting with shredded paper...are there significant levels of toxins associated with shredded paper (especially white office paper, in which dioxin is used in the preparation) that could leach into the soil?

If not, I work at a university which generates ENORMOUS amounts of shredded paper daily and would love to put it to good use!

pam

phggins i wouldnt think so ive been using shreaded paper of all kinds for years now and have never heard of that one. although i dont use colored paper cant remember where i read that. but heres a good search to find out .contact the mfg of the paper or email if you can and request a MSDS fact sheet its required by law to supply you with one if you requst it, its exactly that all the toxic, and hazards, handling info about that prduct or poison or chemical. hope that helps.

colored paper is fine, they use soy ink. It's the glossy paper now that is a no no.

I compost everything in the shreadder. I have been known to find bits of credit cards in my bin

Katy Mac wrote:

......A local gardening guru says it kills slugs! BIG problem in my area.


Unfortunately, the "coffee grounds as a slug deterrent" theory has been long discredited. It's true that caffeine is poisonous to slugs and snails and is thought to be a neuroxin for slugs. The problem is that coffee grounds have been found to be an ineffective delivery method to the slugs and in fact contain very little caffeine. Some studies have had success in controlling slugs by spraying a solution of 1-2% liquid caffeine on the leaves.(This isnt the same as coffee. The average cup of brewed coffee contains less than .1% caffeine ) Oh well.

My dad always put coffee grounds, banana peels, and egg shells in his rose garden. He had the prettiest roses in town.

If you have soil that needs amending so that it's drainage is increased or it's easier to work with, coffee grounds are excellent! Not having any topsoil to speak of here in the Texas Hill Country area, we brought in topsoil for our raised vegetable garden. But we ended up with clay soil that was hard to dig in and drainage wasn't too good. So we're constantly amending it with compost and coffee grounds. I'm so thankful to Starbucks! Works good, and the earthworms are thriving and loving it, so they add their own improvements to the soil. It should be against the law to discard such useful stuff! Lately I scored a big bunch of bat guano, so have been adding that also.

I was a little nervous but I went to the local Starbucks and asked for their coffee grounds. They showed me where they kept them and said just come in when you can and take what you want. I have already spread about 25 lbs of coffee grounds on my garden.

Thanks for the tip,

Chuck

lol your welcome Chuck. Everyone at my local StarBucks knows who I am
and when I stop in for my morning cup of coffee they just hand me a bag full
of grounds wrapped up. I just have to remember to show them pictures from
time to time for them to see what they are helping me with!!!

Angela

Hi Angela... I too go and get the coffee grounds from Star Bucks,been doing it for a few months now..I have a question for you is it true that your soil will get crusted and hard?If so do I just work it in my soil??TIA...

Loretta...

Hi Loretta ~ I'm not sure about the soil becoming hard or crusted. I do work mine
into the soil really well. In fact if it is a new bed then I till them in with other
ammendments such as compost, leaves and whatever else I have.

I have sprinkled the grounds around the base of my roses so that when I water
or it rains then it will runoff into the soil.

Hope this helps.

Angela

Hi,

I put coffee grounds into my compost bin and it works very well. I have a local coffee house save their grounds for me in a five gal bucket which I change out several times a week.

Pauline

Thanks Angela I noticed where I just top coated my soil it did get crusty...As soon as my soil heats up some I will work it in...The filters from Star Bucks do you know if their filters are bleached or unbleached??I want to add them to my worm bin and when I called them they don't have a clue...:o( ...They just said their regular ones...Whatever that means...TIA...

Loretta...

Thanks, Angela. My wife is worried about putting too much coffee grounds in the soil. Yesterday, Starbucks gave me about 25 pounds. I put most of it around a new rose plant. I was also planning on putting a sunflower seed or two in there; maybe even a couple of zinnias. Any suggestions on how much we should use or where we can go to check this out?

Thanks again,

Chuck

Chuck if you think that you might have a problem with it perhaps being
too acidic you can always do one of those soil test that you can get at
Lowe's or Home Depot.

Here are a couple of sites you might go to and read up on it ....

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/nwgardens/143052_lovejoy09.html

http://www.sustainableenterprises.com/Business/coffeefert.htm

I hope this helps Chuck, I'm by NO means an expert at this but
so far it is working for me!!!! (LOL) Good luck to you.

Angela

Angela,

The links were both good but the second link was the most impressive...it actually said that it was okay to use the coffee grounds as a mulch. I went to Google and surfed up a site (I don't know how to include links in Davesgarden) that said that if coffee grounds are used as a mulch, they should not be over 1 inch thick. However, it said it was all right to use it as such.

Thanks a lot,

Chuck