Hi Dorry,

While you will surely get some responses, please also use the search feature on this forum for 'coffee' and you will be inundated with threads on how to use the grounds.

In short coffee grounds are a popular amendment used by many for garden plants, some even go to Starbucks which has a corporate policy of giving away their used grounds and haul home mass quantities for the compost pile.

I have a worm bin and the worms seem to enjoy the grounds as well.

The only criticism I have ever heard is that using a large amount around the base of the plant can result in the pile drying out and resisting the absorption of water.

Coffee grounds can be one part of the total organic matter amendment you put in your garden. If all you put in is coffee grounds tht would be better than nothing but not much.
Putting your coffee grounds in your garden is a much better end use for them than your local landfill, just as recycling any and all your yard "waste" on site is much better than sending that to your local landfill, too. Any food waste that you generate can, and should, be composted and recycled on your property.

Any food waste that you generate can, and should, be composted and recycled on your property.

Blanket statements such as this tend to be somewhat counterproductive. While I'm sure we all support eliminating or at the very least, reducing the organic material that occupies landfills, it just isn't practical to expect everyone to recycle all their organic waste at home. Urban areas with a lot of high density housing pose all sorts of problems to this practice as do newer developments with HOA covenants that restrict or prohibit composting. Let's face it, not everyone is a gardener and not everyone is inclined to compost even if they do garden. Rather than making folks feel guilty for tossing out perfectly good compostibles, encourage your local municipality to embark on its own organic waste recycling program if they don't have one already.

Hi Dorry,

I use a method of gardening called lasagna gardening, which involves layering organic matter (leaves, straw, used coffee grounds, etc) directly on the garden. If you're a gardener, I suggest reading up on lasagna gardening. It's easy, and a good use of coffee grounds.

If you're not an avid gardener, you can do a similar sort of layering in a container in your yard - this, of course, is generally known as composting. :)

If you're not interested in composting but still want to use the coffee grounds - you can sprinkle them around the yard or garden, lightly - they'll get used by the bacteria, molds, and worms, and will be beneficial overall.

One word of caution: If you keep the grounds inside for more than a couple days they will start to mold. It gets bad quickly. So you'd need to find a balance between how often you want to sprinkle grounds around, and how much mold you can tolerate! Since molds can exacerbate respiratory issues, you should probably err on the side of sprinkling grounds more often and not saving them indoors for too long.

(I suppose you could save them in the fridge or some such to reduce mold growth, if you don't want to sprinkle grounds around the yard every morning.)

If you have the space for it, you can spread the coffee grounds out to dry, and avoid the mold problem. I do agree, though, that it would be better to use them, howevr you do, every few days, and not have an additional thing to plan for or make room for. Just don't pile them up 2 inches thick on any one plant and you should be fine. You can add them above your mulch, or scrape back the mulch and scatter the grounds on the soil, then replacing the mulch - depending on your aesthetics and the amount of effort you are willing to make. Me, if I had a regular supply, I think I would add them to my compost pile, as that way they join all the other stuff, and come out in a more universally usable state - come to think of it, finished compost looks rather like coffee grounds.

The other thing you could do with them, if you wanted and had the space, is to get a vermicomposter (worm farm/bin) and let them eat the grounds, which they like. You can collect the castings and use them on your plants as well or better then the coffee grounds. I think there is a forum on it - if not, googling will give you lots of info.

Check out this article, which is a reprint of a portion of Mike McGrath's radio show, You Bet Your Garden. This very subject was discussed on the show that was broadcast yesterday. McGrath says use the grounds in the compost pile only, except perhaps in highly alkaline soils out west, such as is California, where the grounds might bring the soil closer to neutral. The advice he gives is the grounds are too highly acidic and too high in nitrogen to use directly in the soil or on plants, even plants that are acid loving.

Here is a link that might be useful: Coffee grounds

My understanding, although I regard Mike McG. as an expert, is that the grounds are relatively neutral, as they have soaked in water and made coffee, which IS acidic. Using grounds that have NOT made coffee definitely WOULD be acidic. I think the grounds are like most other vegetable matter (except for grass clippings) and are slow to release their nitrogen. I may be wrong, and would be happy to be proven wrong. Since I have coffee grounds only when I have visitors, I just dump them around my azaleas or rhodies - about 10 to 14 days a year! I don't think that little amount will harm anything. But, if you are worried, composting or feeding the coffee grounds to worms would end all problems.

Does anyone else think gardengal reminds them of Debbie Downer from Saturday Night Live?

Not me, I think Gardengal is saying *don't* say negative things, but rather be supportive to wherever people are in their gardening.

Debbie Downers would be the people that fixate on all the diseases that could potentially be contracted by working with soils, followed by fixating on all the injuries one can sustain through gardening, followed by fixating on the cost of gardening, followed by fixating on how a freeze or drought could wipe out your entire crop, followed by......

Does gardengal do that?

dchall, I thought gardengal's post was quite supportive, for people who don't or can't compost and those who do and can.. I also think that this is totally off-topic.

I read all the Mike McG. article more carefully, and am inclined to agree with him, now, that used coffeee grounds are acidic. I also think it depends on how much you are using and applying - if it's the grounds from a morning's worth of coffee for 2-3 people, say 2 cups of grounds, then I would say that applying this daily all around your garden should be OK, as long as you check to see which plants HATE acid and want lime (lilacs, lavender, etc.) and avoid them. If you are collecting grounds from a store, or if you have a very large family, then I think a compost pile would be the best place to put the grounds. Lasagna composting would work too.

Yes, Dorrie, you can use the grounds in your garden. If you have a lot, just scratch them into the soil a little bit to spread them out. The worms will come up to the surface to get them the same way they do dead leaves. It's what earthworms do. The grounds won't stay on top of the soil for very long, certainly not long enough to be a problem. If you have a compost pile you can add them to it and they will break down nicely in a couple of months.

I like to think of coffee grounds as almost the perfect form of spreadable fertilizer. A lot like rabbit manure. Ever think about how considerate rabbits are to pelletize their manure to make it so easily spreadable? I like that. Cheryl

Coffee grounds may well be acidic, but to make much difference in your soil you would need to add tons of them. This idea that coffee grounds, in the amounts most people would add, would have an adverse affect on soil pH is a myth just as that of Oak leaves and Pine needles.

Someone on the soil and compost forum posted a question as to whether you could have too many grounds. My response was what follows which may give you some insight as to it's uses in the gardens. Some statements were made that the grounds are too acidic and too high in nitrogen. Here goes...

"Geez, I wish someone would have told me this over 2 years ago when I started bringing home 250+ lbs every week! I get mine from a gas station that sells more coffee than you can shake a stick at. It's a gold mine, and my main source of greens.
I have 4 compost bins and every week, I add my UCGs. Some weeks I'll use my loot by 'flinging' all of it on the lawn. One week's worth will do 1/3 of the lawn, so it can use up 3 weeks' worth. I also have some cold piles hidden around the property where I'll throw some excess UCGs if I'm too lazy to do anything else.

I'm glad Mr. McGrath is telling people that the UCGs are too high in N and acidity for plants. Happy to hear I'm not going to have to fight off anyone for my UCGs in the near future due to his publicity. It's all I use to feed my lawn and it used to look like death warmed over a few years ago when we moved in here. This is what it looks like now when we get to the dry days of summer. Our soil here is poor in terms of nutrients and naturally acidic. "

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I have a question about coffee grounds & crushed egg shells. Can I mix the two & just add them to my flower beds or vegetable garden?

Coffee grounds and egg shells are a part of the total organic matter soils need, a small part. You could add just those but for the maximum benefit for your soil you need lots of other stuff too.

I have used coffee grounds around my rose bushes for years - and they are the envy of my neighborhood. I just scratch the grounds in around the bush, every day, a different bush each day. Lots of worms, and we have a hard clay soil, and the quality of the soil is amazing. I have tons of huge roses, and the bushes thrive. Just my experience.

good luck,
Kathy

I was going to mention rose bushes too, or blueberry bushes (they like acidity) or perhaps sprinkle them on the ground where you are going to grow potatoes to lower the possibility of scab (doesn't like acidic soil). Mostly, I just toss them into my compost pile.

Earthworms seem to really like coffee grounds and since earthowrms do not like soils too far off the 6.0 to 7.0 pH that most all plants also seem to prefer I would doubt that the pH of coffee grounds could be as acidic as some reports seem to indicate.

A good way to start is to take them into the garden and scratch them into the soil. If you have more than a kilo a week, then consider composting.

Here is a link that might be useful: Ground to Ground