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Are Coffee Grounds Good for Plants?
Have you asked yourself this question before throwing away your used coffee grounds? You should!
Published November 19, 2021
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Vasileia Fanarioti
Coffee experts@The Coffee Lab
Coffee is a beverage that many people love to drink, but did you know it can be used for more than just waking up and getting through your work day?
Coffee grounds are actually quite beneficial for plants. They will make your garden grow faster and stronger! Read on about the benefits of using coffee grounds in this article.
Are Coffee Grounds Good for Plants
Coffee is something that everyone enjoys drinking, whether they like their coffee hot or cold, black or with cream and sugar. However, there's more to coffee than just a morning drink - coffee can also be useful as an ingredient in cooking recipes , as well as being good for plants too!
How to use Coffee Grounds Around Plants
Coffee grounds make a great addition to any organic garden, as they are full of nutrients, and will help add acidity too. This makes them a great natural fertilizer for your plants - especially if you have added fruit or citrus peel to the mix.
Though coffee should be used in moderation if your soil is already rich in organic matter, it should be okay to add a small amount of the coffee by itself. However, remember that overuse of coffee grounds can end up harming rather than helping your plant's health due to its high levels of ammonia.
Since most compost heaps contain enough soil bacteria that break down waste into useful fertilizers, it may not always be necessary to add more.
However, coffee grounds are also rich in nitrogen, so they can be used to replace Manure as a fertilizer - just remember that it's best not to use too much! When you water your plants with coffee, the caffeine in the mixture will act as a natural insecticide that will ward off nasty insects like aphids and spider mites.
A few practical examples
Here are some ways you can use coffee around the garden:
Coffee Grounds as Mulch
Many people will think about using coffee as a way to create mulch around their plants. When you place coffee grounds down, they help to keep weed growth down and also holds moisture in the ground for longer. This is especially good if you live in hotter areas where the ground tends to dry up easily , because coffee acts like a natural constant moisture system!
To use your leftover coffee grounds as mulch, simply pour them out of an old container (ideally one that's been used for this purpose) onto the area where you want the mulch. Then, water over the top of it and let it sit overnight - by morning, your soil should have absorbed all of the moistness from the coffee, allowing it to act like a natural mulch.
Coffee Grounds for Plants that Like Acidic Soil
Do you have any plants in your garden which prefer an acidic soil? If so, then coffee grounds are perfect for you! Coffee contains high levels of acid - in fact, when it's been roasted, this acidity can be around 8.4 pH!
If you have plants in your garden which require an acidic soil to survive, then using coffee grounds is a wonderful way to add the extra acid they need to thrive! Simply add some of the grounds around the plant's base and mix them into the soil. Not only will your plants appreciate this little treat, but it also helps keep the weeds away!
Coffee Grounds for Plants which are Sentimental
Some people have favourite plants in their garden that they just can't bear to part with, even if the plant is looking a little worse for wear. If this sounds like you - never fear! Coffee grounds can help save your plant from dying just yet! Not only do the coffee grounds help to keep weed growth down, but they also give nutrients back into the soil that are great for promoting new life within an existing plant's roots.
What's more, these coffee grounds will create an acidic environment in your soil , making it perfect for acid-loving plants! So go ahead and add some of those old grounds onto the base of your sentimental plant - you might be surprised at how well your plant responds! Are you wondering what to do with all those coffee grounds?
Well, now you know a few ways you can put them to use as mulch for the garden as well as being useful for some of your favourite plants. Have you ever used coffee grounds around the garden before? If so, have they helped your plants grow and flourish?
Other uses for coffee grounds
Aside from using coffee grounds in your garden there are other ways you could put them into good use as well. Coffee grounds are known to be a natural exfoliate and can add an extra touch of roughness in your homemade soap recipe.
They resurface tired nails, clean copper pots and pans, and reduce that "itchy" feeling caused by dry skin or flaking during cold weather. Coffee grounds contain caffeine which acts as a deodorizer and has an overall cleansing effect on the body.
Here are some other great ideas for using used coffee grounds.
Get rid of ants
Pour about half a cup of coffee grounds into an old jar or plastic bottle and add two tablespoons of sugar and two tablespoons of water. Shake it well and wait until the mixture hardens into a solid cake.
Then just set it out near any ants that you find crawling around the house and watch the ants go away! The caffeine in the coffee will poison them without harming other insects such as ladybugs.
Lighten skin
Mix the coffee grounds with enough olive oil to make a paste. Apply it all over your face and let sit for 15 minutes before rinsing off with warm water. Coffee is an excellent exfoliant as well as being good for cleansing oily skin, so you should notice that your skin feels softer after using this scrub just once or twice!
Get rid of stink
Don't like walking around smelling like last night's dinner? Then put some used coffee grounds in a small dish and place it near where you usually sit during the day. People who don't eat meat won't notice anything unusual, but the rest of us will be very grateful not to have our homes smelling like dead fish or rotting flesh! The smell of coffee will neutralize it.
Make a scrub
Use the coffee grounds that you have after brewing your morning pot of java to make a body scrub. Add a cupful to a tablespoon of brown sugar and mix well, then rub this mixture over wet skin in the shower before rinsing it off with warm water.
The coffee will remove dead skin cells while the sugar acts as an exfoliant; both will leave your skin feeling smooth and clean! Be sure to rinse thoroughly so you don't get any little grains stuck in sensitive places like under your arms or between your legs.
It's not particularly painful but it is annoying! To give yourself an invigorating aroma experience, add some lavender to the scrub - just 3 drops in the mixture before mixing it up.
Final Thoughts
Coffee grounds are good for plants. They provide nutrients and help the soil retain water, so they're a great choice if you want to go green in your garden but don't have time to compost on the regular.
So next time you brew up some coffee at home or work, save those leftovers in an airtight container until it's full before throwing them away—you'll be glad that you did when blooming season comes around again this year.
About the author
Vasileia Fanarioti
My name is Vasileia and I’m here because i decided to combine my two favourite things: writing and coffee. I love travelling around the world and visiting coffee shops but my biggest goal is to visit a coffee farm, to see where it all starts! You can follow my coffee adventures via my blog: thewanderingbean.net
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