Coffee!

[ChickenMomma91]

The DH and I are non-functional without coffee and it pains me to throw away the grounds but i don't have space for a compost right now. According to my new issue of Mother Earth Living you can use coffee grounds as part of your seed start mix and for controlling pests like snails and slugs (deters not kills). What are your thoughts??

 

[digitS']

Well, I can vote for coffee grounds in the garden. The earthworms love it and whatever makes an earthworm happy .... makes you wonder how they'd act if the grounds hadn't been already used for making a beverage.

Anyway!

I've never used it in a starting mix, @ChickenMomma91 .

Steve

 

[ChickenMomma91]

I probably should've specified used grounds. I'm stuck with mostly container gardening. I wonder if they'll work keeping the neighbors dog from trying to take a whiz on them a .22 is probably my best bet on that lol

 

[majorcatfish]

as much coffee as we go though willing to try anything new to help increase worms in the raised beds year round....

 

[Just-Moxie]

Coffee grounds!! of course!!! use them!!Sprinkle around plants to deter cutworms. No, they won't deter dogs from whizzing.
Take a container and turn it into a compost bin. Put the extra in there with other kitchen scraps. You can still have a compost bin then.

 

[baymule]

Put a hot wire around the dog's favorite whiz spot.

 

[Ridgerunner]

Caffeine contains some chemical that can even be fatal to some pests in high concentrations, so dumping the grounds around a plant could keep cutworms away. It's supposed to work for slugs and snails too. Maybe even other pests. Other than possible pest control if it is in high enough concentrations, I don't know why it would be any different than other mulch.

My coffee grounds go in a bowl I keep on the kitchen counter for food wastes. Those generally go to the compost though I usually pick stuff out that the chickens would like when I go to dump it and give that stuff to them. A low priority project is to fix a place in the run where I dump those kitchen wastes. The chickens can eat what they want and when I start a new batch of compost, I could move whatever is left to that. Hindsight is great. If I were starting over my compost bins would be in the run to start with.

 

[SprigOfTheLivingDead]

From what I understand coffee grounds are pretty high in nitrogen, so certainly follow the "anything that can break down is good in the garden" rule, but depending on the amount you add you could potentially 'burn' your plants

 

[thistlebloom]

Put a hot wire around the dog's favorite whiz spot.

I don't know if I should be concerned about myself....I find hot wire such a satisfying method for training miscreant animals.

And yes to coffee grounds in the garden, Although since you garden in containers it might be a bit much if you're a real coffee hound. I like Moxies suggestion to compost in a container.

 

[AMKuska]

@ChickenMomma91 a motion detecting sprinkler for a few nights will help your neighbor's dog see the light.