Are Coffee Grounds Good for the Garden?
Coffee grounds are an excellent natural addition to your garden! Don’t be too hasty in throwing out those grounds. They’re an amazing source of nitrogen combined with trace amounts of phosphorus and potassium. They are also a good source of micronutrients such as magnesium, copper, calcium, zinc, manganese, and iron. Here how to use the grounds:
Use as a mulch around plants. Do not throw them on to the ground in thick clumps or layers, though, as this can create a hard pan making it difficult for water to penetrate. The best thing to do is to sprinkle the grounds over the surface in combination with other mulches. You can sprinkle on top of or mixed in with the other mulch.
No need to worry about the coffee grounds being too acidic. Most of the acidity is lost during the coffee brewing process. They will be little acidic, but just with a pH in the of 6.5-6.8 range, which is great for most vegetables and garden plants.
Some plants won’t respond well to using lots of coffee grounds, particularly tomatoes, so do use them sparingly around your plants.
Coffee grounds are superb additions to your compost heap. Their relatively high nitrogen content can really power your compost. Despite being brown in color, coffee grounds are in fact a ‘green’, and can be used to help balance out ‘browns’ such as fallen leaves, straw or shredded paper. It’s small particle size means it’ll start to get to work immediately. All those microbes will love it, breaking the nitrogen down into the plant-available form we’re after, while generating plenty of heat to speed up the whole decomposition process and give your heap a pep in its step. Simply add generous handfuls of coffee grounds when you add your browns, broadcasting it over your pile.
Did you know that worms love coffee grounds too? It aids their digestion. If you have a worm bin, this is also a great ingredient to add along with other ingredients. Seems like worms like their caffeine fix as much as we do!
Any coffee grounds you can save are superb of course, but if you really want to up your game, why not have a friendly word with your local coffee shop? Many coffee shops are only too happy to give their grounds away, and some even leave them out for eager gardeners to haul away.
