Perk up your garden by adding coffee into the mix! Used coffee grounds are a great source of organic, slow-release nitrogen that can be incorporated into many everyday gardening tasks to improve results. We poked around to find some ways in which you could incorporate your used coffee grounds or coffee beans into everyday gardening practices and found these awesome ideas:
- Before it rains or you water your garden, sprinkle used grounds around your plants to slowly release nitrogen into the soil
- You can add used grounds in filters or tea bags to your compost pile to increase your nitrogen balance; they have a carbon-to-nitrogen ration of 20:1, similar to grass clippings
- For a gentle fertilizer, dilute 1/2 pound can of wet grounds in a five gallon bucket of water, then let it sit outdoors to achieve ambient temperature
- Mix together used grounds & eggshells and then encircle the base of the plant to form a natural pest barrier
- Caffeine is an effective slug deterrent: Concentrations as low as .01% in the soil reduces slug feeding on leaves, but won't kill them; if you're in a genocidal mood, however, a 1% solution will take out 60% of slugs and a 2% solution will eradicate 95% of all types of slugs. Keep in mind, however, that the 2% solution did damage some tender foliage, so while the idea of ridding your garden permanently of these slimy little guys might be appealing, it could have adverse effects on your plants
- If you have a vermiculture setup, your used coffee grounds will be lovingly consumed by your tribe of worms
- Use over-roasted beans as a mulch for your garden pathways to create an eye-catching and lovely scented walkway
- Used grounds are an excellent mulch for tomato plants -- the increase in nitrogen make your tomatoes happy and also help suppress late blight