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| Here is a comprehensive post on using coffee grounds. |
When I take out the coffee didies, a daily or twice-daily job, I think of this passage from one of my favorite novels -
“It all began, as I have said, when the Boss, sitting in the black Cadillac which sped through the night, said to me (to Me who was what Jack Burden, the student of history, had grown up to be) "There is always something."
And I said, "Maybe not on the Judge."
And he said, "Man is conceived in sin and born in corruption and he passeth from the stink of the didie to the stench of the shroud. There is always something.”
― Robert Penn Warren, All the King's Men
The coffee didies are the spent grounds that gave us two mugs of pour-over coffee, the best in the world, easily made, rarely sampled.
Unlike egg-shells and epsom salt, coffee grounds are great for the soil.
This is the most complete list of coffee ground uses.
Coffee Grounds as Fertilizer
Used coffee grounds for gardening does not end with compost. Many people choose to place coffee grounds straight onto the soil and use it as a fertilizer. The thing to keep in mind is while coffee grounds add nitrogen to your compost, they will not immediately add nitrogen to your soil. The benefit of using coffee grounds as a fertilizer is that it adds organic material to the soil, which improves drainage, water retention and aeration in the soil. The used coffee grounds will also help microorganisms beneficial to plant growth thrive as well as attract earthworms. Many people feel that coffee grounds lower the pH (or raise the acid level) of soil, which is good for acid loving plants. But this is only true for unwashed coffee grounds. “Fresh coffee grounds are acidic. Used coffee grounds are neutral.” If you rinse your used coffee grounds, they will have a near neutral pH of 6.5 and will not affect the acid levels of the soil. To use coffee grounds as fertilizer, work the coffee grounds into the soil around your plants. Leftover diluted coffee works well like this too.
Other Uses for Used Coffee Grounds in Gardens
Coffee grounds can also be used in your garden for other things. Many gardeners like to use used coffee grounds as a mulch for their plants. Other used for coffee grounds include using it to keep slugs and snails away from plants (GJ - Don't bet on that). The theory is that the caffeine in the coffee grounds negatively affects these pests and so they avoid soil where the coffee grounds are found. Some people also claim that coffee grounds on the soil is a cat repellent and will keep cats from using your flower and veggie beds as a litter box (GJ - Haha). You can also use coffee grounds as worm food if you do vermicomposting with a worm bin. Worms are very fond of coffee grounds.
Read more at Gardening Know How: Composting With Coffee Grounds – Used Coffee Grounds For Gardening https://www.gardeningknowhow.com/composting/ingredients/coffee-grounds-gardening.htm
As coffee grounds break down, they release nutrition in the form of nitrogen, potassium, magnesium and other minerals into the soil. For plants that do well in acidic media, augment soil with coffee grounds to help them thrive.
God created many species of birds that form their own recyclable diapers, which the parents carry away from the nest. See the linked post above.
I found that simply tossing the paper filter and coffee into the garden did not work well. Although the filters decompose, they end up looking like litter for a long time. So now I drop the wet grounds and filter into the collars I have around Crepe Myrtles and roses. The collar keeps them in place and there should be peat humus on top of them soon.
Earthworms also love paper - and cardboard, so coffee didies contribute to the garden's soil nutrition and creatures.
A lot of what I do is small and laughable on a daily basis. Walking Sassy Sue, I bring back a lump of rotting wood or a clump of leaves and pine needles. Sometime I get a large section of bark to use as mulch. The individual additions to the soil are minor, but they add up over the weeks, months, and years. I have the biggest flowers, blooms, and weeds. The woody weeds I can cut at the base. The grassy weeds are formidable. Nevertheless, they also contribute by adding to the soil while growing and afterwards by decomposing - all part of God's plan.
