Over the years online I’ve been able to find experts who are excited to share their experience in gardening to debunk the home gardening myths that keep popping up. Nothing ‘erks’ me more than misleading information being shared online. In this post, I hope to share with you what I’ve found out about using coffee grounds (and a few other goodies) in your home garden. I will be sharing my personal experience using coffee grounds.
How I use Coffee Grounds In The Garden
*NOTE: These are used coffee grounds. I do not recommending use ground coffee that has not been filtered or used for coffee.
Thanks for checking out this video today. You can find it on my Bren Haas YouTube Channel.
Coffee Grounds In My Garden
One thing I love about my coffee machine is that it creates the most amazing grounds to use in my garden compost and landscape. The beautiful blooms on my climbing rose and red carpet rose right off the front porch of my home are due to the grounds (and a few other goodies) I sprinkle in during the year
Coffee grounds are approximately 1.45 percent nitrogen, magnesium, calcium, potassium, and other trace minerals. As far as acids in the coffee, the roasting process actually removes most of these. All these minerals help make the used coffee grounds a great green source for composts and even used directly in the garden. Keep in mind that it depends on what type of coffee beans you use as well. My husband and I love the brew created from the organic whole bean coffee we find at Costco. We stay away from the flavored varieties because they leave an oil or grease residue on our coffee maker. If it is leaving this on the machine imagine what it is leaving in your body or garden!
Pest In The Garden
There was a rumor going around in one of my cat lover groups that cats will go to the bathroom where coffee grounds were spread. This was not true… in fact, our cat Oppie loved coffee beans. This cat would do anything for a sip of coffee and a whole coffee bean. I had to use lids on my coffee cups while in the garden with this feline!
I’ve heard that adding the coffee grounds to your garden creates a slug and snail barrier. The critters don’t like how the coffee grounds are abrasive, so a barrier of grounds placed near slug-prone plants may just save them from these garden pests. From my personal experience, I do believe this is true. In a garden where I have hostas and low light, I use to get many snails and the one thing I changed over the years was sprinkling used coffee grounds in that area. Mixing in other mulch to this space helps the coffee grounds break down as well.
What I do with My Coffee Grounds
When it is time to empty my coffee machine the medium goes right to my garden or the composter outdoors. The grounds make a great green addition to my compost mixer if I don’t have time to add it to the landscape. The photos below show an eggshell, water and coffee ground recipe I throw into my landscape where the roses are planted right off my front porch.
In the photo above I have added my grounds to the topsoil. It is winter time so I cover the mixture with the leaves that are on the top. When Spring arrives I can hardly tell I added grounds because it all breaks down so nicely over the seasons.
I did a book review featuring a book titled Coffee for Roses.. and 70 other misleading Mythos about Backyard Gardening’. I hope you check out my interview with the author and a quick look at the book in a video on my website.
In Conclusion
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Happy Gardening,
2 Responses
I have used them but I am not a coffee drinker so there aren’t many. I put them in with everything else I compost.
Thank you for sharing with me Judy!