any mixtures like that would be whatever you think you need, depending on what you're applying it to - coffee grounds can be used directly or left sittin around forever - they dry out or get moldy, doesn't matter - if you apply them as a 'mulch' very thickly they will dry out and crust over so that water doesn't penetrate - better used as an addition to a compost pile, and bonemeal and cormeal are 'stand alone' supplements that have benefits in certain soils for various things

Bill

Thanks! I appreciate your help! I'm starting me a coffee ground bucket this morning!
Dawn

Coffee grounds are one of many materials used to amend soils so the soil bacteria will have something to digest and make available to your plants the nutrients they need to grow and thrive. Organic gardeners should not be thinking in terms of "adding fertilizers" but instead thinking in terms of amending the soil for optimal soil health. If you need to use "fertilizers" then your soil is not in good condition and needs more work.

Careful with bonemeal and/or bloodmeal, If you dont know the source, you can potentially open yourself to any dis-
eases that the animal may have had. Even if you do research, and determine they are strictly organic, this does not make the risk go away completely. Tom

There is some speculation that the prions that are thought to cause the Mad Cow Disease might be in Bone Meal and/or Blood Meal, but none has been seen, yet, even from animals that obviously have the disease. There is also speculation that Mad Cow Disease, or its variants in other animals, might cause the simlar brain wasting disease in humans although no one has been able to explain why vegetarians get the same thing.

As a veggie, kimmsr, I'll hazard a guess. I've done quite a bit of reading about BSE and prions, and prions are not destroyed by anything...not bleach, not insanely high heat, not antibiotics, antivirals or antifungals. Considering that even vegetarians get vaccinated with vaccines made from a wide variety of animals, and that animal products are hidden in everything we eat AND use (from snacks to shampoo to car tires to film to cosmetics), it's pretty much impossible to avoid animal products entirely. I don't think it's terribly difficult to figure out how vegetarians might end up with BSE when viewing the whole picture.

Fert. short for fertile. Til. short for tilling. Izer. short for doing some thing. Fertilizer, making the soil fertile and tilling at same time? The word fertilizer is a misnomer, at the best of times. No human can put as much "N" factor in the soil as mother nature can. I never studied the "K" factor, but I think the plants we grow may mine it. The "P" factor, also must be mined by the plants. I feel that by my adding organic materials, I am making a friable soil that lets air and rain down to the root zone. This air and rain has probably more "N" factor than you can ever put in the soil. The organic materials, hold this rain down near the roots in a water soluable condition, for the plants to take up.
The "K & P" factors get returned to the soil by the composted plant materials we put in, they are in a condition to be used by our plant already, due to the dead plants using them.
As Kimm said amend the soil, to allow the plants to do their own thing.
The soil herd will digest plant materials, and excrete humic acids which break down the mineral part of your soils and the plants can takeup the trace minerals it needs.
Mostly, all one needs is to get materials, that "I say were once green and growing" back into the soils.
Some people are more into the results of gardening, than the means. This is where chemicals come in. Fast results.
Bryan

I just dump it around my gardenias, camelias and palms and they really respond well to UCG. If I have excess, I just dump it into my compost pile as a green.

That's what I do, too. My hostas love it and I use it on my lawn a lot.

I lost the thread of this conversation. are you folks saying that you use straight coffee grounds as a mulch?

You can use it as mulch, but it won't do much for weed suppression. I really like using it on the plants in my garden that like it most, like gardenias, camelias and azeleas. Otherwise, I tend to compost it as a green in my enclosed compost bin.

Coffee grounds, if laid on the soil thick enough, will do a really good job suppressing "weed" growth, but as a general rule of thumb you can simply plunk the grounds you have down on the soils surface and the earthworms and other soil microbes will move them into your soil for you, provided your soil is even just a wee bit healthy.