Applying used coffee grounds to your garden as a soil ammendment or compost pile can be a great a source of nutrition to help your flowers grow.
Used coffee grounds are a perfect addition to compost or flowerbeds because:
1. They hold moisture.
2. They are free and unlike many over the counter products, they smell good and are not toxic if inhaled (as some inorganic fertilzers).
3. They contain Nitrogen-Phosphate-Potassium (N-P-K) and other trace elements.
4. They can deter slugs
5. They add acidity to the soil.
Used coffee grounds are a perfect addition to compost or flowerbeds because:
1. They hold moisture.
2. They are free and unlike many over the counter products, they smell good and are not toxic if inhaled (as some inorganic fertilzers).
3. They contain Nitrogen-Phosphate-Potassium (N-P-K) and other trace elements.
4. They can deter slugs
5. They add acidity to the soil.
How to apply used coffee grounds in your garden: You can place the coffee ground directly on the top of your soil. Plants that like a lot of acid such as hydrangeas and azaleas will love you. Keeping in mind that you don’t want to add too much acid, you should balance the coffee grounds with the paper coffee filter (!!), dried leaves, chipped bark or shreaded cardboard (bowns) to ensure you keep the soil pH balanced.
How to utlize used coffee grounds in your composter:Since Coffee is high in nitrogen they act as a green material (rather than brown) when decomposing in your composter. Make sure to layer the coffee grounds (and other green materials) with browns (such as the used coffee filter (!!), dried leaves, dried grasses, chipped bark, or shreaded cardboard/paper). This layering affect will help speed up the decompotion process and if you have a vermicomposter (worm composting) ensure that you do no encourage fruit flies or other pests while providing the wiggly wigglers with “bedding”.
Coffee grounds will hold the mositiure to encourge decompostion and when correctly combined with enough browns they will generate heat. Keep in mind that there is too much of a good thing (even coffee) so don’t pile too much coffee into your composter and balance the grounds with other kicthen scraps (fruit peels, egg shells, vegetable cuttings, etc…) To ensure to not imbalance your composters pH too much you may want to through in a little lime, wood ash or baking soda. 1-2 spoons for every few lbs of coffee should e sufficent. This will also help if you have a vermicomposter to ensure the worms don’t get burnt from too much acid.
For more information on composting please see: www.vermicomposters.com or talk to your local organic gardening shop.
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