While a cup of Maxwell House may be “good to the last drop,” the benefits of coffee may extend long after the pot is empty. That is, if you’re an avid gardener.
Although millions sip habitually each morning, the vast majority of coffee drinkers fail to realize that the remnants of their precious bean can also be used to nurture their garden.
Providing essential nutrients and an excellent catalyst for reaction, as well as being readily available and cheaper than fertilizer, coffee grounds may be just the thing many gardeners are looking for.
The way it works
All living things contain carbon. Accordingly, when organisms die and are introduced to the ground (buried), carbon is released, enriching the soil.
Before this can happen however, microbes within the soil must first break down the organism. They do this using nitrogen as their fuel.
The ability of microbes to breakdown any given organism is therefore dependent on the amount of carbon, and nitrogen in that specific organism.
This is expressed in a “carbon to nitrogen ratio” or C:N ratio.
Although the mathematical process for finding a specific organism’s C:N ratio is rather complex (not to mention boring), the average gardener is in luck, because scientists and compost-aficionados have already determined the ratio for most common plant nutrients.
Things like grass clippings have a ratio of roughly 15:1, manure-20:1, sawdust-400:1, etc.
That’s well and good but what does this mean to your garden?
The lower the ratio (more nitrogen), the quicker the organism will break down and release its nutrients.
This is where coffee comes into the mix.
Because they have a fairly low ratio of 20:1, coffee grounds can provide a garden or compost pile with an excellent source of nitrogen.
Serving as more of a catalyst than a heavy nutrient, coffee grounds can help chemically balance a compost pile, which should optimally have a 30:1 ratio.
Mixed equally with something like decaying leaves (40:1), it can be very easy to achieve optimum results (30:1).
If you have a large garden however, and don’t want to use fertilizer as a catalyst, you’re going to need a large amount of coffee.
Where to go?
Looking for grounds but only drink instant? No need to worry, there are many businesses more than willing to let you take some of their own.
Although it they may seem like the most logical places to go, some of the best places to start a search would be at local coffee shops.
Here in Sonoma Valley, two of the best places to go are the Adobe Net Café, they make weekly coffee ground donations to the Community Garden Park, and Starbucks.
As part of the company’s effort to promote social responsibility, Starbucks allows any community member, non-profit group, or park to request used coffee grounds for the purpose of gardening.
The program title “Grounds for Your Garden,” has been quite popular with customers and gardeners alike and has been instituted companywide.
Another great place to go for grounds, are restaurants and bars.
Even if they don’t have any readily available, you can ask them to save their grounds for you in a bag and pick them up once or twice a week.
Who knows, with a little help from the community and coffee, you garden may be blooming and budding in no time. |
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