What to do with coffee grounds?

Nature Lover...I could talk about them for days! If I were to buy them now...it would have to be on the internet. My local nursery sells out quick! I've already gotten my 'limit' for this year. I can't wait to show you pictures of them!

NL1950: Hope all goes well. I have several friends and relatives who have been thru knee replacements. Make sure hubby is prepared for the fact that therapy after will only get him back what he puts into it. And yes it is painful. They call it PT (pain and torture) and after mine with a major hand injury last year it is just that PT. I did regain 95 plus % use of my right hand only thru good therapists and doing all I could stand at home. Good Luck, prayers are with you and the hubby!

Thanks so much for the prayers gcorrier--they mean so much. We have some friends who have been through knee replacements so hubby is braced for the PT--love that "pain and torture" :-} He's familiar with the PT anyway--he's already had ankle reconstruction and ankle fusion. Sounds like your hand injury was very painful--glad you regained most of the use of it.

NoGreen--I'd love to see pictures of your coneflowers. They are so pretty. I only grow the purple since I've heard that so many of the hybrids don't seed true. I don't sweat so I am very limited as to how much time I can spend outside during our very hot summer down here and I'm not very diligent about keeping all my flowers deadheaded. I would certainly want to keep the hybrids deadheaded.

I have put coffe grounds in house plant pots when the soil level looked low. It never hurt the plant

I use a lot of coffee grounds for my Japanese irises and hostas. My granddaughter and her boyfriend both work for Starbucks so I can get 40 pounds each weekend in addition to our own.

I'm jealous pirl!! I have a couple of others who save their coffee grounds for me but I don't get even close to 40 pounds :-{ A good friend of mine used to "water" her philodendron with her leftover coffee and I swear, she had the prettiest plant in the whole office! I used to tease her that her plant was probably grouchy if it didn't get some coffee first thing in the morning.

As I would be if I didn't have mine!

I fill up the coffee jug with water, along with the morning coffee, and use that to water the houseplants in the kitchen and the fern. They all do very well.

I hope this question isn't impossibly dumb, but is all the caffeine removed from the grounds after brewing? I have neighbor cats who occasionally use my garden as a litter box and I'd feel terrible if coffee grounds got stuck in their paws and they ingested them while grooming -- that is, if there was any caffeine resdue that might harm them. Also, what about tea leaves? Are they caffeine free after brewing, and can you use any herbal tea leaves also?

I love it! I'm a old school percutarer coffee guy(taste better, nofilter papers to buy ). Drink A pot A day, put another scoop in the next, and sling it out in the yard or garden. Lived down this way for 27 years and the sand grows better plants each year. My bugs seem to be faster, but I have soom hyped up LIZZARDS ! I wonder if there is A connection? I did not even think about getting grounds from the coffee shops. GOOD WORK! Thanks for the info and good humor. Crazyfish 3 out.

Hi all, I started saving my coffee grounds 2 weeks ago (I know, I know, I'm such a latebloomer! ;) And I went away for a few days and the coffee grounds turned moldy before I could toss them into the planting beds....can I still use them? Or should I now compost them? Also, Lynn61 where did you get your username, I love it! :)

I have no idea about the caffeine content after brewing.

The amount of worms I have is astonishing and it's due to the coffee. The first one I ever knew of to mention it was DG's victorgardener from NY's Hudson Valley area and he was right.

Lynnie - put the grounds in the garden and very gently scratch them into the top layer of soil.

ROFL--I love it! Imagine our garden worms on caffeine! Kind of like people on steriods? Seriously though, I add my coffee grounds to my compost bin so I honestly don't know about the caffeine being a problem for cats. Cats don't usually sit down right where they do their business and wash their feet--they usually move to another location (I have 5 cats). So logically, they should knock off all the coffee grounds while walking through grass, dirt or whatever. I don't see where it should be a worry. But, to be safe, do like pirl suggests and just work it into your soil.

The vast majority of the caffeine is removed during the brewing process.

I thought I read too the grounds help keep the slugs away.

Crazyfish3 - please post more often - I like your style!!!

Re: Cats and caffeine - it's a good question, but I don't think you need to worry about the very small amount of caffeine that might remain in the grounds especially if they are dispersed through the compost. Like others have said, there's very little left anyway after the brewing process and that 'brewing process' continues as the compost is watered by rain and by hand, so I don't think you need to worry.

You know,one of the areas I threw grounds in had no worms in it when I dug the planting bed, and 3 days later when I added another shrub there were worms there...I put it down to the coffee grounds, but I also added some manure/humus mix. I'm a serious coffee fiend, at least a pot a day, so to me I figure the worms just know a good thing when it's there haha