Friday, June 10, 2011

Coffee Grounds and Gardening

I've been hearing (and reading) a lot of talk about using coffee grounds on your garden. So I decided to delve into this topic a little further and share with you what information I can find.

Coffee grounds are a great source of nitrogen for soil, however, as with anything too much of a good thing can be bad. To keep from overwhelming your plants with coffee, use coffee in your compost instead of directly on the plant.

Now this isn't to say that coffee can never be used directly on a plant, you just have to be careful with it. Some sites recommend using coffee grounds as a mulch for fast growing vegetables such as tomato plants. You can also shred up the used coffee filters into this mulch.

Sprinkling coffee grounds around plants that slugs love to munch on can help keep those plants safe. As it is believed that coffee grounds are poisonous to slugs. Unfortunately, I was unable to find out why (if anyone has more information on this please share in the comments).

Coffee grounds can act as a great natural insecticide on tomato plants. Make your coffee double strength. Let your coffee cool down to room temperature before spraying on your tomato plants. You can even pour the coffee grounds on the leaves and fruit of the tomatoes. 


What other garden uses have you found for coffee grounds?



3 comments:

  1. Coffee grounds can also be put in a wormery, so the end product helps the garden plants that way too ��

    ReplyDelete
  2. Don't know if the grounds are poisonous for the slug, but I do know that they don't like egg shells because of the sharp edges on their tender bodies so maybe it's a texture thing with the grounds as well.

    ReplyDelete

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