Coffee Grounds Benefit the Garden

Put coffee grounds and filters to work improving your garden’s beauty and productivity.

Recycle these morning discards in your compost pile or worm bin. Or occasionally sprinkle the grounds on the soil surface of your indoor or outdoor container and in-ground gardens.

Avoid adding large amounts at one time. This can temporarily tie up soil nutrients, making them unavailable to the plant. Incorporate larger amounts into the soil, along with shredded leaves in fall or add them to your compost pile. Once they decompose these nutrients will be available for the plants.

Although coffee grounds are acidic, they have minimal effect on the soil pH. They do, however, contain allelopathic chemicals that can inhibit growth in certain susceptible plants and prevent some seeds from sprouting. Once the coffee grounds fully decompose, this is not a concern.

A bit more information
Tea bags offer the same benefits. Just make sure the bags are biodegradable before adding them to the compost pile or worm bin. Or pick the intact bags out of the compost before adding it to containers and the garden.