Tips For Using Coffee Grounds In Your Garden
Coffee houses usually throw out their coffee grounds or K-cups. It is a waste or by-product of the brewing process. However, it is great for the garden. So, if you are getting into gardening, you might want to start making friends with those that work at a coffee house or buy premium coffee to enjoy and garden with. Let’s take a look at how coffee grounds can help you in your gardening.
1-Use as mulch
Coffee grounds are perfect mulch! Mulch, in some areas, is hard to come by and when you do, it is expensive. Mulch made out of used coffee grounds could essentially be free. If you are a coffee drinker, then you could even use your own grounds for this purpose. After each brew, take the grounds and place them around your gardens. They will make your gardens smell good, but also keep down the weeds and help hold in the moisture for your garden as well. Mulch makes gardening much easier and the plants thrive with it. This is a great use for used coffee grounds. They are all-natural and will continue to break down and become a nice compost.
However, you should not use coffee beans around certain plants. Some plants react to them better than others. Should you see your plants suffering after you put down this type of mulch, you should remove the mulch or move the plant. While other plants are okay with it. It should not be put in areas where you are looking for germination, as it is thought that coffee can harm the germination process.
Coffee grounds are best used in areas where you don’t want plants to grow. As the particles can become a barrier and block out water and light. They could be used to smother out plants that you don’t want. As the particles get wet and dry out, they will bond together and become pretty solid, similar to clay.
2-Using coffee grounds as fertilizer
It has been determined that coffee actually has some fertilizer qualities. While we have determined it is not good to water your plants with coffee. It is good to use the grounds and mix it in with the soil. This enriches the soil. You can spread them thinly or add them to your compost pile and blend them in with the dirt. However you’d like to do it, but this needs to be sparse and thin around plants to not give it the mulch problem. It is best to add it to the compost pile.
People that use worms in their compost have noticed that the worms like coffee in their compost. You can also throw the filters in there to break down. Compost piles are great for your garden and there are simply so many different ways that you can do it. You certainly should do some research to see how composting can be done in your living situation.
3-Prevent Slugs
Slugs love your garden plants. However, if you are having a slug problem, you can put a ring around your plants to stop them from eating your plants. A ring of coffee prevents the slugs from reaching your plants. We don’t exactly know if it is the rough texture, smell, or caffeine, however, we do know that it keeps the slugs away. They are also great for getting out ants!
While coffee grounds are great for repelling insects, mulch, and fertilizer, they are not good for pets. So, if you have pets that tend to get into things, you need to be cautious. Coffee grounds are good for your garden in many ways, however, they are toxic if eaten in large quantities by your dog or cat. Most pets will leave coffee grounds alone. But, it is something that we thought was worth mentioning, just in case.
4-It is not too acidic for your garden
There are loads of information out there on arguing if the grounds are acidic and will harm your garden. However, this isn’t actually the case. We all hear about how the acidic nature of the coffee is how we get the flavor. So, people are naturally stating that the grounds, even after use are acidic. But, that’s simply not the case. However, there have been studies and they have found that most coffee grounds are ph neutral and will not harm your compost with their acid.
5-Weed Preventer
Because it gets really hard after they dry out, it is great for preventing weeds. If you have areas that are shaded that are hard to grow anything, however, the weeds like to grow, using coffee grounds can really help with that.
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