If you’re like me, then you’ve always felt guilty about not knowing what to do with your used coffee grounds.
I make coffee at home every day. I have so many used grounds, and I hate throwing them in the trash.
Spending the time to grind them correctly, brew the grounds at the right temperature, and storing my beans properly is a labor of love.
Do they have to be thrown away once I’m done making cold brew?
This got me thinking about what to do with used coffee grounds.
There are so many ways to use coffee grounds around your house. The obvious one is to add them to your compost bin.
But what about directly to plants?
I’m sharing how to use your leftover coffee grounds around your home and make a positive impact on your budget and the environment.
Planting Small Seeds in Used Coffee Grounds
It’s springtime around these parts, and I’m excited about starting my spring garden. My daughter and I love carrots. It might be our favorite vegetable.
Planting carrot seeds can be a pain. The seeds are tiny, but you want them evenly spaced when you plant them, so they don’t grow in a tangled mass.
Coffee grounds are not only a fantastic source of nitrogen for your garden, but they’re also really dark. Coffee grounds can make it easier to see the tiny carrot seeds so you can plant them evenly.
Once you make the row, you’re going to plant the seeds in, lightly sprinkle enough coffee grounds on the topsoil to be able to make a darker line. Then just plant your seeds as you normally would.
Evenly spaced carrots, even beets, and other root vegetables with microscopic seeds.
This is great for any seed you’re trying to evenly space but are too small to see. You get a double benefit because the ground coffee is such a good boost to the soil you’re growing the vegetables in.
Super Boost Your Compost with Coffee Grounds
I’m always telling people to add their used coffee grounds to their compost. Coffee is rich in the nutrients that can make your at home compost a gold mine for plants.
Coffee grounds are chock full of all the nutrients your compost pile wants. The biggest benefit they bring to the compost game is nitrogen. Nitrogen attracts worms. And worms make for beautiful compost.
Nitrogen is also the mineral most ground soil in gardens is missing. Nitrogen can boost your leafy greens, tomatoes, and hot peppers. Jalapenos are notorious for leaching all the nitrogen out of the soil.
When these vegetables are missing the nitrogen they want so desperately, they can have smaller yields, yellow leaves, and even die. Be sure to do a little research before applying your nutrient rich compost to sensitive plants.
Coffee grounds also can contribute additional levels of magnesium, calcium, and even potassium to your compost mixture. These nutrients are some of the harder ones to add to your compost’s makeup. So save those used grounds for your compost and watch that garden grow.
They Make a Great Natural Bug Repellent
Speaking of bountiful gardens, bugs love flower and vegetable gardens. Luckily you’ve been saving your coffee grounds.
Pests like slugs and other garden destroying annoyances hate coffee. The strong coffee scent and its high acid contents will repel them away from your prized squash and flowers.
Simply sprinkle your saved grounds at the base of the plant you’re having pest issues with and watch them flee the scene. You may have to repeat this regularly to ensure coffee’s pest repelling smell stays strong.
If you live in an area with ant problems, then ground coffee can work on these little pests.
I live in North Texas, and we have ant problems. Sugar ants? We have them. Carpenter ants? We have them. The evil fire ant? We have them, too.
I know ants contribute to the ecosystem, but I hate them. I don’t need them in my house. And I don’t want to cohabitate with them.
If you sprinkle a 1-inch barrier of coffee grounds around the areas that are susceptible to ant invasions, you should see at least a reduction of ants in your house. My back door is old and is a great place for those little stinkers to come into our house. I sprinkle them at the door base about every 3 months and haven’t seen an ant since.
Save Used Coffee Grounds for Icy Sidewalks
Do you live in an area that gets snow and or ice in the winter?
If so, you probably have at least a bag of that blue salt deicer in your garage or closet somewhere. It melts the ice and makes your walk to your car less treacherous.
Did you know that commercial grade deicers are terrible for the environment?
The industrial level chemicals used in most walkway deicers are full of corrosive chemicals that can leach into the ground and your local water system. Gross right?
Coffee grounds are a fantastic substitute for commercial walkway deicer.
Even if you live in Texas, you might need to worry about this. Think about this past February (Winter Storm Uri). This storm rocked the entire State of Texas to its core.
Coffee Saved Us During Winter Storm Uri
We used our saved used coffee grounds on our steps when Winter Storm Uri hit in February of 2021. We didn’t have a shovel, but once I swept all the snow off our sidewalk, I sprinkled the used coffee grounds, and we had traction and didn’t slip and fall every time we went to the car or mailbox that snowy week.
It’s going to take more than just a day’s worth of grounds to combat the slippery ice. I used about 5 12 cup pot’s worth of used coffee grounds on our walkway. You’ll need to save quite a bit of used beans for this application.
Texas got a lot of flack and jokes at our own expense from other states for our ill prepared skillset in winter storms, but this house had coffee. So save your used coffee grounds for icy storms that take your usually warm state by surprise.
Used Coffee Grounds Are a Natural House Plant Food
So far, I’ve talked about using your used coffee grounds outside.
But what about using them inside?
There are tons of applications, but my favorite is using coffee grounds as plant food. What’s good for the garden (and compost) is also good for potted indoor plants.
Because of the nutrient density of coffee grounds, they make a great addition to your indoor house plants. Indoor house plants lose their nutrients due to staying in the same soil over time without the natural conditions of being in the ground.
I love my house plants like children. I also love coffee. When I read that you could use used coffee grounds as plant food for house plants, I was over the moon.
Here’s how to use coffee grounds with your house plants:
- Fill a gallon of water in your watering can.
- Add a teaspoon of used coffee grounds.
- Let the fertilizer mixture sit for 15 minutes.
- Stir to distribute the grounds.
- Water your plants as normal.
- Repeat this every month or so to keep your indoor house plants happy and fed.
Coffee grounds are not only nutrient rich, but they’re also ph balanced.
Add Used Coffee Grounds to Fresh Cut Flowers
I love having fresh cut flowers around the house. B brings me a bouquet (or 2) every Tuesday when he gets home from playing disc golf. It’s such a nice weekly gift that I look forward to.
Sometimes the flowers don’t come with a packet of additives for the water in a vase. Used coffee grounds are a great alternative to the plant food that comes with fresh cut flowers.
Simply add a 1/4 teaspoon of used grounds to the vase water before adding your cut flowers. The nutrients naturally found in the grounds will extend the life of your flowers and keep them bright and lovely to look at.
If you’re lucky enough to receive fresh cut flowers that need more than just one vase of water, repeat the same steps when you replace the water.
Conclusion
Who knew there were so many uses for used coffee grounds?
It seems a shame to throw them out in the trash.
There are many more ways to use your spent grounds that I didn’t list. I love the positive environmental and financial impact used beans can have on a day to day activities.