Wednesday, August 27, 2008

Uses for Coffee in the Garden

We had our calender committee meeting at a Starbucks last night. I walked away with about 20 lbs of coffee grounds. Usually I just dump them in the compost pile and give a little to the worms. I did a little research and here is what I came up with.

1. Coffee grounds have an NPK of 2.-.36-.67
2. Coffee grounds are acidic. My soil is alkaline so this is perfect.
3. Coffee ground repel slugs and snails. Maybe, I should sprinkle some on the deck. Earlier this summer, I walked out on our deck and stepped on a slug. Horrible, the stuff of nightmares.
4. Worms like coffee grounds.
5. Coffee absorbs odor. My mom had a horrible smell in her house. We never did figure out what it was. Anyway, we put out bowls of coffee and it really helped.
6. Coffee has a 20:1 nitrogen to carbon ratio. This is about the same as grass clipping so it should help heat up a compost pile.
7. Taking the coffee grounds from a coffee bar or restaurant keeps them out of the landfill and helps reduce production of the greenhouse gas methane. Methane is 25 times worse for the environment than carbon dioxide.

Go get yourself some coffee grounds. It makes your compost smell good.