Composting With Coffee Grounds: Good for Plants or Just a Fad?

Making use of coffee grounds in the garden is a great idea because it turns an otherwise wasted product into something very useful indeed.

Here’s how you can make use of coffee grounds in the garden.

What Are Coffee Grounds?

If you have a coffee machine at home you’ll be familiar with coffee grounds but maybe you’ve spotted your local café offering free grounds and wondered what it’s all about?

Well, coffee grounds are the leftovers from coffee that’s been made in a machine. Used coffee grounds are no use at all – except in the garden!

Grounds are an organic material that breaks down into compost. Instead of sending coffee grounds to landfill we can re-use them in our outside spaces.

How Do Coffee Grounds Help The Garden?

There are several ways leftover coffee grounds can be used in the garden and we’ll go into a bit more depth later on, but in short they make a great mulch, fertilise your compost heap, create nitrogen, may scare off slugs and cats, and some say they can make your soil more acidic.

Where Can I Get Some?

If you don’t own a coffee maker then most high street or supermarket cafés will have bags of leftover coffee grounds. If they aren’t already bagging them up for customers just ask. In most cases, they’re happy to get rid of the waste.

How To Use Coffee Grounds

Improve Your Soil

Coffee is a natural material that breaks down into organic matter. This is good news for soil as it improves water retention, aeration, and drainage.

Soil that’s full of organic matter attracts earthworms that further aerate and improve the soil.

Crumbly soil means your plant roots can easily spread out to create a stable base, suck up more nutrients, and absorb more air. This leads to bigger, better, healthier plants.

How To Improve Your Soil Using Coffee Grounds

Sprinkle used coffee grounds thinly across your border and dig them in a few inches. They will eventually break down to improve the soil and attract important earthworms. Earthworms reach up to pull coffee grounds down into the depths just as they do with fallen leaves.

And, much, much more.  Access the full article here.

Author:  Rachel Brown, DIY Garden