How to Use Coffee grounds in the garden

Add coffee to the compost. One of the easiest ways to use leftover coffee grounds is to put them in your compost. In addition to providing more organic matter, coffee grounds also work to accelerate the decomposition of compost. You can take advantage of this easily by pouring coffee grounds into your compost pile.

• There are two main types of compost materials: “green” manure and “brown” manure. Coffee grounds are considered “green” manure along with other wet and nutrient-rich ingredients. If you’re adding a lot of coffee grounds to your compost, you need to balance it out by adding more “brown” manure – bulky, dry materials like dead leaves, newspaper, straw, corn husks, sawdust, etc. ^[1]

Add coffee grounds directly to the soil to increase acidity. Coffee has a pH of about 5.1 – quite acidic compared to most garden soils. Although acidity may be too high for some plants; but this is great for other plants that require high acidity. Simply sprinkle a handful of coffee grounds near the roots at the start of the growing season to increase acidity. Blueberries, cranberries, and citrus fruits prefer soil that is fortified with coffee grounds. Some other plants that also like coffee grounds are camellia, gardenia, and rhododendron. ^[2]

• Some flowers will bloom differently when planted in highly acidic soil. For example, fertilizing a hydrangea with coffee can cause the plant to bloom blue.

Consider adding lime to balance the pH of the coffee grounds. As noted above, the natural acidity of coffee grounds may not be suitable for “average” garden soils. To reduce acidity, you can mix a pinch of lime into your coffee grounds. Lime is naturally alkaline (as opposed to acidic) and will neutralize the acidity in the coffee grounds. This way you can add coffee grounds directly to the garden as a mulch or soil conditioner.

• Lime is often sold as “garden lime” or “agricultural lime”. You can find them at gardening stores for a relatively cheap price.

Use coffee grounds to add nutrients to the soil. Acidity is not the only benefit of coffee grounds. Coffee grounds also contain many essential nutrients that help plants grow healthy. So, if your garden lacks nutrients, then coffee grounds are a very good choice. You can view the following information: ^[3]

• High-quality coffee grounds:
• Nitrogen
• Magnesium
• Potassium
• Coffee grounds without high content:
• Phosphorus
• Calcium

Another option is to use coffee grounds as a fertilizer solution for plants. Not only can coffee grounds be added directly to the soil in your garden – you can also make a fertilizer solution from coffee grounds. Put a handful of coffee grounds in a bucket of water. Store in a cool place (like in a garage) for 1-2 days. The resulting solution will be amber in color. Remove the coffee grounds and use this solution to water the plants.

• This solution has the same acidity and nutrients as regular coffee grounds, so it should be used with caution if watering plants that don’t require a lot of nitrogen, potassium, and don’t like acids.