by CD Gozzi

Created on: August 01, 2007

I make no bones about being green' and a try to make a concerted effort to recycle and reuse as many different things around the house as I can. Being a coffee drinker, I am glad to have found some beneficial uses for my coffee grounds. I compost most of my fruit and vegetable waste and have found that coffee grounds fulfill some of the green aspect for the pile. Coffee grounds have a carbon-to-nitrogen ratio of 20:1, comparable to that of grass clippings. Once the coffee has been brewed, the grounds contain up to 2% nitrogen. The compost pile works best if it has a green to brown ratio of 1:25. Brown items are rich in carbon and are usually dry leaves, shredded news paper, sawdust or straw. Composting mimics the natural degradation that occurs in the unaffected and wild environment the forests, meadows etc. As the trees and plants die, they decay and are digested by the fauna that lives in the soil worms, insects, fungus, and microorganisms and make the goal end product of humus. Humus keeps the soil loose and holds moisture in.

If you happen to compost using red worms then you will find they absolutely love coffee grounds. Vermicomposting is smaller scale composting and uses mostly food scraps, where traditional composting includes paper and yard clippings. The worms are extremely happy when the coffee grounds are added and the castings they provide are an excellent amendment for your garden.

Not into composting all your kitchen and yard waste? Coffee grounds alone make a great soil amendment and will naturally attract the red worms to it. Contrary to popular misconception, the coffee grounds are not high in acid content. Fresh roasted coffee does have a high acid level but during the brewing process, the acid is leached into the liquid beverage. By mixing the spent grounds into your soil, you will be increasing the nitrogen content which in turn makes your plants quite happy.

While the worms and plants may be happy with the added mixture of grounds, slugs are not quite as pleased. Studies have shown that a two percent caffeine solution will kill slugs; the problems however is that our brewed coffee grounds only have about .05% caffeine. This might turn the slugs away but it will not kill them.

Another pest to your garden that is turned off by coffee grounds is your neighbor's frisky feline. To keep the kitty from using your garden as a potty, sprinkle coffee grounds mixed with citrus peels around the plants. Kitty will have to find another garden to take care of business.

Even better, coffee grounds keep ants and cutworms at bay. Try surrounding the area you want to keep these little crawling pests away from with the coffee grounds. They often will not cross where the grounds are placed. You can also pour the grounds directly onto and in the mounds along with some boiling hot water. Don't hang around to see what they do as they will be rather upset and come out of the mound rather quickly. They will ultimately move on to someone else's' yard and leave yours alone.

Don't forget your houseplants! Mixing a little of the grounds into the soil will help deter mites and add a little nitrogen to their roots. Don't add too much or you may burn your plants.

So now you say you don't drink coffee? Well then saunter on over to the local coffee shop and see if you can take the grounds off of their hands. It will minimize the amount of solid waste they have to dispose of and ultimately be a cost savings to them. The Starbucks franchises usually have a sign or posting up in their stores indicating you can take the grounds for free. It is worth a visit to pick up some of the grounds to aid your garden. Might as well have a cup to drink while you are already there.

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