Coffee Compost

Coffee Compost; you're old coffee grounds have a beneficial impact on your garden and we are here to tell you how! (Woohoooo! I love coffee and nature)

Oh yes, coffee grounds have several uses in the garden.

By using coffee grounds as a fertiliser it adds organic material to your soil, which improves drainage, water retention and aeration in the soil. To use coffee grounds as fertiliser, work the coffee grounds into the soil around your plants. 

Isn't coffee too acidic for soil, I hear you ask...

“Fresh coffee grounds are acidic. Used coffee grounds are neutral.”

Many people feel that coffee grounds lower the pH (or raise the acid level) of soil, which is good for acid loving plants. Plants such as Hydrangeas, and Azaleas thrive with acidic soil so they welcome coffee grounds to be used in their soil as it helps to create beautiful, healthy plants. 

Keep in mind that if you rinse your used coffee grounds, they will have a near neutral pH of 6.5 and will not affect the acid levels your soil.

An added bonus to using used coffee grounds will also help microorganisms beneficial to plant growth thrive as well as attract earthworms. Earthworm activities and waste are beneficial to the garden. By attracting earthworms to your soil provides the organisms that loosen soil and add important nutrients for better plant growth.

Coffee grounds can also give seedlings a much needed boost of nitrogen. Used grounds actually release nitrogen as they degrade which makes for very rich compost. Many people choose to place coffee grounds straight onto the soil and use it as a fertilizer. The thing to keep in mind is while coffee grounds add nitrogen to your compost, they will not immediately add nitrogen to your soil.

Top tip: Coffee keeps the pests away

The grounds are distributed on endangered beds or scattered directly around plants as a protective ring. Snails and slugs love to nibble on succulent foliage or flowers and are primarily pests of seedlings and herbaceous plants. The caffeine in the coffee grounds negatively affects these pests and so they avoid soil where the coffee grounds are found.

Happy zero waste gardening! Tag @ethilution in your results so that we can see your results!