Grounds For Your Garden

As I am always interested in cheap, or in this case, free ways to spruce up the yard and my flower beds - I was excited to read about Starbucks "Grounds For Your Garden" program. I knew you could add coffee grounds to your acidic loving flowers but we don't drink enough coffee here to really add much of anything.Then Tina at "In The Garden" put a very helpful tip on her blog - Starbucks gives away its spent coffee grounds! Woohoo!

Now I visit the Starbucks on my way home and take their coffee grounds and most stores I have talked to and visited have been more than happy to hand the stuff over. One out of the three I have visited so far has been rather rude to me - when I asked about their Grounds For Your Garden program they disdainfully waved me over to a bucket near the front of the store - when I made it to the bucket there was nothing in there and instead of returning to inform the woman that there was nothing in the bucket I just walked out. The store wasn't busy by any means -no one was in line at all and two customers were just leaving - she just wasn't willing to work with me (for those on the Southside of Indy this store would be located by the Panera off of Fry Rd.) - but all the others were friendly and helpful.

Here is Starbucks' spiel about the program from their website:

"Let Starbucks help your garden grow Coffee grounds can provide a valuable source of nutrition for your garden if used properly. The proper amount to be used depends on the condition of the soil and, more specifically, what you are growing in your garden. Check with your local gardening expert to see what is best for your situation. Here are a few general tips.

Applying coffee grounds directly in the garden
Coffee grounds can be applied along with other materials as a side dressing for vegetables, roses, and other plants. Coffee grounds are high in nitrogen, but are also acidic. Adding brown material such as leaves and dried grass to the mulch will help keep a balanced soil pH.

Mixing coffee grounds in your compost
Coffee grounds act as a green material with a carbon-nitrogen (C-N) ratio of 20-1. They make an excellent addition to your compost. Combined with browns such as leaves and straw, coffee grounds generate heat and will speed up the composting process.

Using coffee grounds in a worm bin
Worms fed with coffee grounds combined with other materials will flourish.

For more information about composting, here are a few helpful Web sites:

compostingcouncil.org (US Composting Council)
compost.org (Composting Council of Canada)
mastercomposter.com

Call your local Starbucks for more information!"

More uses for your grounds!
I was a little worried about applying grounds to other plants in my yard without composting it first, but found great articles to ease my mind and that got me even more excited about my new found resource!

Are Coffee Grounds Good For Your Lawn - Professor's House