Coffee for the Garden!

Love your coffee in the morning? Instead of throwing your used coffee grounds away each morning, use them in the garden! Your coffee grounds hold nitrogen, which is essential for the leafy growth of your vegetables, as well as other nutrients that your veggies will love. They are a great additive to your soil, and there are a few other fun uses!

1. Throw them in your compost pile! Your used coffee grounds will increase the nitrogen balance, as these are the "green" materials of your compost. This is great if you put a lot of "brown" materials into your pile, like cardboard and paper. If you use worms in your compost bin, they love these grounds too!

2. Sprinkle the grounds around the garden before you water it. This will create slow release nitrogen, and will also bring the worms to the surface. Worm excrement is very good for the soil because it enriches it. Also sprinkle all around your lawn. Your grass is a heavy feeder of nitrogen, and will thrive from the grounds!

3. Use your grounds as a mulch around your fast-growing vegetables. The nitrogen really promotes growth in these veggies. To prevent a "crust" forming from the grounds, mix it with something like wood chips first. Roses are also known to love the coffee grounds. Sprinkle around your roses, and the whole neighborhood will be envious of your flowers!

4. Let about 1/5 pound to a pound of coffee grounds sit in 5 gallons of water over night. The result will be a quick release, nitrogen-rich liquid fertilizer. Your nitrogen loving veggies will adore you for this.

5. Used coffee grounds have been known to deter some pests in the garden as well. If you are having problems with the neighbors' cat using your garden as a litter box, sprinkling some grounds should help keep the cats away. The grounds should also help with slugs and snails as they aren't too fond of the caffeine, and should keep the ants away as well!

Some other fun uses outside the garden:

6. Steep your grounds in hot water and use it as a dye. It can be used on fabrics, paper, Easter eggs, and can even be used as a wood stain!

7.  Use as an exfoliate in the shower.

8. To deodorize a freezer/fridge, dry your grounds in the oven, then put in a bowl and place in the freezer/fridge. You can also put them in a nylon stocking and hang in a closet, or place in a drawer.

9. Rub coffee grounds on hands to get rid of smells from chopping or cutting up stinky foods like garlic or onions.

10. Sprinkle wet coffee grounds over the ashes in your fireplace to keep from becoming engulfed in the cloud of dust ashes create when you need to remove them.

11. Brunettes can benefit from rinsing their hair in coffee. Steep used coffee grounds in 2 cups hot water for 15 minutes or so and then rinse through hair for a darker, more vibrant shine.

12. Fireplace fuel: The Java Log fire log is made from used coffee grounds, wax, molasses, and feed binder (a wood waste product).

If you don't think your morning coffee grounds are enough, stop by your local Starbucks. They have a program called "Grounds for Your Garden." They will hand out their used coffee grounds to anyone at anytime. I just call early in the morning and ask them to start saving their grounds, then pick them up a few hours later!

With all these uses, you can never have too much!