I always take the coffee after brewing and dry it and keep it. Is there any way I can use it in the garden or in my containers?
Coffee is considered a 'green' when composting since they are a great source of Nitrogen so you can add them wet or dry to the compost pile. If you have worm bins, then add only a cup or so each week to each bin, too much might upset the wormy tummies. Scratch them into the soil around plants or just sprinkle them around and water them in. You can add them to a 5 gallon bucket of water, let it sit overnight then use it as fertilizer for garden and container plants. They make a great slug and snail barrier since they are acidic and abrasive to the critters underside.
I was going to say the slug thing as Toni has. Some of our local coffee houses give away spent coffee grounds to gardeners for this very purpose.
I'm not a coffee drinker... but have always been told that they make great fertilizer. And now that I've started a compost bin... I've asked hubby & my brother to toss their coffee grounds out there. And for tea-drinkers, like myself, the same applies. I even used to "water" an Ivy with my left-over tea and that thing just loved it!
Had an elderly uncle that always tossed the daily coffee grounds out the back door onto the grass. The side he threw the grounds onto had grass that was green and lush although slightly striped since he didn't scatter them evenly.
Coffee grounds are concidered a 'green'. Perhaps their greatest virtue is they are ground up ,and dark colored. Very suitable as top dressing in beds, good compost bin addition.
To build on Cherylad's comment, I used to pour my leftover coffee (without cream) in the potted tree in my office at work -- a neglected ficus that no one thought could be saved. It thrived and I think the coffee helped. I throw my coffe grounds into the compost bin or put them around my vegetables in the summer. Interesting, to use to deter slugs.... learned something new again!
For years my folks added coffee grounds to their garden, I never remember seeing any slugs, now I know why. Time to save coffee grounds. Jerry
"Greens" is a term used here to denote its comparatively higher nitrogen content. Versus: Browns have a higher carbon content. (sigh) Except when ever somebody gets too happy with food color around St Patrick's day...
If I add coffee grounds to my blueberry pots the soil will become more acidic? I'm stuck at ph6.5 right now and from what I've read they like 5.5 - 4.5
In NH, I found I had to suppliment soil with either mir-acid, or sulphur to make it acidic enough to keep lowland blueberry happy. Nothing, no amount of coffee grounds or pine needles or bark mulch did the PH changing I needed.
According to info on the Clemson University web site to lower a PH of 6.5 to 5.5 you need 2.5 lbs. of sulphur per 100 sq. ft. Small adjustments are needed for clay or sandy soil. Jerry Reference: http://hubcap.clemson.edu/~blpprt/lowerpH.html
thank you Jerry! now I just have to find sulphur... local CoOp is going to get a call tomorrow! (poor people) 8)
