Contact MargaretA Little Coffee for Your Garden?
March 17th, 2008 Categories: Random Topics
I wrote this article for Crofton Village Garden Club, but you may find it interesting, as well. Enjoy!
Nothing beats a good cup of coffee in the morning! Some folks suggest your garden would be happier with coffee, too.
My grandmother always told me there was nothing better than coffee grounds for azaleas, and she should know - her yard was a showplace! Every year, people would pull up in front of her home to take photos of her amazing azaleas.
I’m not as religious about it as she was - mostly because we don’t drink much coffee at home - but I do spread coffee grounds around my azaleas whenever we have them. In fact, sometimes I wonder if it would be beneficial to just buy a bag of coffee and use it straight out of the bag. Instinct tells me that would be just too acidic even for acid-loving plants like azaleas, rhododendron, dogwood, holly, hydrangea, juniper, magnolia, pine, and blueberries.
Today I came across a recent article on this very topic: Anna Hackman’s Coffee Grounds, Garden Friend or Foe? The author reports on her experience using coffee grounds to rescue some sickly rose bushes. Intrigued by the good results, yet questioning if it really was the coffee grounds (or was it coincidence?) she embarked on a quest for real research regarding this practice.
She found a study online titled Using Coffee Grounds Correctly, which includes a conversation with Will Brinton, founder and Director of the Wood’s End Research Laboratory in Maine, testers of soils, composts, and raw ingredients used in composting. I won’t try to re-cap the interview here because I think you’ll find it interesting to read the entire post.
She also spoke with a researcher and training manager at Rodale Institute, Dr. Paul Hepperly, who indicated coffee grounds are solely a soil amendment and not a fertilizer. It was his recommendation to side-dress plants with no more than one inch at a time, and to add more coffee grounds only after the original ones decompose.
I guess the bottom line is this: A little coffee can be a gardener’s friend in more ways than one – at the breakfast table AND in the garden. ‘Think I’ll head down to Starbucks and see if they have some coffee grounds they’d like to give away!
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Hello Margaret, Great article for my garden. I am a morning coffee person, now instead of throwing away all the grounds, I will put some of them in my garden. Always looking for tips on helping my garden last longer. I am more a vegetable gardener than a flower gardener, I will do some more research for my tomatoes and other spring/summer veggies. Thanks again for the tip. David
Thanks for reading my blog and commenting. ‘Hope your garden thrives with its morning coffee, and it will be another reminder of the benefits of reading and writing blogs.
Margaret,
Thanks for the tip. I had no idea about this. I will pass on the information to my mom!
Interesting, informative, and timely–thanks!