This is a post reprint for May 6-12 International Compost Awareness Week. This important educational program is sponsored by the US Composting Council, with the theme of Compost! …Replenish the Earth for Generations, and supported by the Compost Council of Canada, with the theme of Give Back to the Earth … COMPOST!Every morning we make a pot of coffee, so we have lots of coffee grounds. In spring and summer, I put them directly into the garden. In winter, I "cook" them dry in a frying pan on the wood stove. That way they store in Ziploc bags without moulding.
In the garden, coffee grounds have many uses including mulching, composting and pest control.
Coffee grounds are high in nitrogen and that makes them good for fast-growing vegetables like tomatoes. One article said they also help prevent blight.
What really interests me is deterring and killing slugs. While I don't think using grounds has solved my slug problem, I think it has helped reduce the damage to my strawberry plants.
So if you like a cuppa joe to start your day, and want to be ready for spring planting, try cooking your grounds dry and saving them. Your plants will thank you. -- Margy
Great idea! I use them too in the garden.
ReplyDeleteMy mom uses her coffee grounds and I do to. She sprinkles them directly around her plants while I put them in my compost. I think I'll try spreading them around the plants. I don't have a big slug problem but I have other bugs, maybe it will help.
ReplyDeleteMargaret
Another thing you can do to kill the pests is try using diatomaceous earth. It works great :)
ReplyDeleteI currently live in a second floor apartment with balcony garden, so I don't have much of a slug problem. A friend of mine has been having great success in keeping slugs away from his salad, though, by using wooden, raised planters with sheet metal 'obstacles' attached all around the edges. These obstacles poke out at a 90 degree angle to the planter wall for a bit less than an inch, and then bend downwards and continue on for about half an inch. Slugs will happily climb a vertical wall, but climbing straight out from the wall, downwards and then upwards again in one movement seems to be too much to handle for even their sticky bellies.
ReplyDeleteThanks Spanishheart and Thomas for two great suggestions. - Margy
ReplyDeleteMy mom uses her coffee grounds and I do to. She sprinkles them directly around her plants while I put them in my compost. I think I'll try spreading them around the plants.
ReplyDeletecupcoffeemakerhq