Coffee?

beet juice or the water from boiling them....

I was also going to say beet juice, or the liquid from boiling onion skins. (Yellow onions makes brown liquid, red onions make a mauve sort of color.) I have used all those things for coloring Easter eggs. But I just leave the paper white, personally, I assume you mean in the compost?

Marcia

What are you using the shredded paper for that it "stands out like a sore Thumb"?
Far easier thay dyeing that paper would be covering it with something to hide it.

I use it for mulch, then in the fall I turn it under, it works great on this red clay soil in virginia. I love the suggestions, and I will give it a try.

Definitely coffee or tea. You need efferdent to get THOSE stains off! LOL! Make a separate bin for your coffee grounds & toss your shreds in there & stir! Yup, yup. That's the ticket!

If coffee grounds are good in compost, is left over coffee also good? I always make too much.

I use shredded paper for mulch also, and you are right about the whiteness. I don't mind the look so much, but on a sunny day it blinds me something fierce! Especially early in the season before the plants fill in. I did use some shredded brown paper bags, but since I've started using canvas bags at the market, I'm in short supply of those. I may ask my co-workers to donate - although it seems everyone uses those darn plastic bags now. But anyway, the brown paper is a bit better than the white. Never thought of dyeing the white paper...

:)
Dee

I guess I could spare some of the coffee grounds, I save them for the blueberry bushes and a few for the rainbarrels to kill the mosquitoe larvae. I use walnut hulls to make a waterbase stain for the baskets I make. I know there is a substance the roots produce that is detrimental to plants, do the hulls contain this substance too?

Do coffee grounds kill mosquito larvae???? Do you just throw it in or put in a strainer or sock? WOW! Where have I been?

Westy

"...do the hulls contain this substance too?..."

If you mean juglone from black walnuts, yes, its in all parts of the plant. Composting breaks it down and so does exposure to air (but that takes a while longer).

Coffee grounds kill mosquito larvae? That's a new one to me too.

tj

I have not seen anything about coffee grounds suspended in water killing mosquito larva, yet, but cold, caffienated coffee can be sprayed on plant leaves to deter slugs. The USDA Research station in Hilo, Hawaii found that to be a very effective method of control.

ok, so no natural walnut stain, I use cinnamon to dye soap, maybe I will try that, I read about the grounds and mosquitoe larvae in an old issue of either mother earth news or organic gardening, if I can find it I will post the issue #. I check the barrels every day and never see any larvae, it doesn't smell too good and I guess you shouldn't water anything that doesn't like acid, it hasn't had a detrimental effect on anything i have used it on so far, and I use it on everything from vegetables to ornamentals.

"...I guess you shouldn't water anything that doesn't like acid..."

I wouldn't worry about that.

A bale of wheat straw hay just costs $3, and covers yards of paper. By the time the hay disappears (worms or whatever) the paper has disappeared into soil. I also have been raking up leaves to put on top of my paper. I covered my entire sand driveway (this is Florida) with shredded paper. The sand was filling shoes and floorboard every trip to the car. We like to wear sandals and hate the sand. After a year grass has grown over most of the paper. My neighbors thought I was crazy, but we lose the sand to the bayou after rains, and I am not losing any sand. Neighbor came over recently and pointed at the driveway, which is grass and gray paper instead of white paper or pure sand, now and pointed out that the driveway is humped up instead of being washed away.