Internet search on coffee ground mulch
Used coffee grounds have many uses, from mulching to compost building. This is one ubiquitous material it's hard to have too much of. If you decide to mulch your beds and borders with ground coffee, here's a hot fashion tip: Remove the filters first. Those raggedy white papers look too tacky for words when left fluttering around your flowers. White or brown, you can shred the filter papers and mix them into the compost, where they'll break down nicely in short order.
Ground coffee is high in nitrogen, making it a very good mulch for fast-growing vegetables. Many organic growers swear by coffee grounds as mulches for tomato plants, both for the nitrogen boost this heavy feeder appreciates and for coffee's ability to help suppress late blight.
Years ago, I noticed that my coffee-bean pathways produced terrifically robust seedlings of several fusspot plants. My observation was confirmed by several soil scientists, who explained that coffee contains a number of substances that promote healthy plant growth.
Perhaps we should be sharing the end of the pot with our houseplants and watering any prima donna garden plants with leftover coffee as well. On second thought, the border belles probably would prefer for us to brew them a special batch of their own, rather than accepting secondhand or second-best coffee.
Starbucks makes spent coffee grounds available year-round to its North America customers on a first-come, first-served basis. Grounds are packaged in reused coffee bags and come with simple directions for using the grounds in the garden or compost pile.
Coffee-ground mulch also can help reduce the ravages of slugs and snails. At a recent class, one participant announced that she always mulched her hostas with coffee grounds each day and had never before understood why they were never bothered by slugs.
Coffee grounds can be used to mulch plants that slugs love to feast on, such as hostas, ligularias and lilies. Try them for daffodils and other spring bulbs as well. You also can rid areas of slugs and snails by mixing up some instant coffee and making it two to three times stronger than you ordinarily would. Spray this concentrated coffee where slugs roam free and you'll notice a definite dropoff in damage.
Recent studies have demonstrated that when slugs or snails travel over soil or pathways where a strong caffeine solution has been sprayed, their slimy foot takes up the caffeine with fatal results. Theoretically, you also could kill slugs with tea, but you would need a far more concentrated batch than you would even think about drinking.
Pound for pound, tea has more caffeine than coffee, but a pound of tea makes many more cups than a pound of coffee. To get a strong enough concentration of caffeine to deter pests, you'd need to use more tea than would be practical. However, the stewed ends of the teapot are well worth sloshing about the garden. Like coffee, tea has many compounds that help plants grow well. Houseplants are famously fond of being mulched with used tea leaves, and all kinds of tea leftovers can be mixed into the compost with impunity, including paper wrappers and tea bags with strings. The only materials to avoid are metal (like tea bag staples) or plastic coated wrappers that won't break down.
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