"George.com" wrote in message
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"John Wheeler" wrote in message
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USDA Zone 7
"Jim Voege" wrote in message
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"John Wheeler" wrote in message
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I suspect it's anaerobic, because of lack of oxygen. How does it smell
when you turn it? Frequent turning helps bring in oxygen and mixing up
the ingredients. Layering by itself does little. Adding fertilizer
that
you pay for is mostly wasting money.

While generally true that is not always the case. If circumstances are
such that you have too high a proportion of carbon (brown) to nitrogen
(green) a bit of relatively inexpensive spring lawn fertilizer can
redress
the balance.

Jim
Or you could get lots of free coffee grounds from a local business that
makes lots of coffee, e.g., Starbucks. I get about 15 pounds a day of
coffee grounds. Then in the fall I collect bags of leaves in the
neighborhood, grind them up, and add them to compost piles the next year.

John. An interesting scavange, free used coffee grounds.
What arrangements did you put in place with starbucks to get them?
How do Starbucks 'store' their waste grounds and in what receptacle do you
get it home?
Do you throw them straight in with your existing compost?
If so, what do you add to the grounds in the way of carbon (and how much)
to
get the correct ratio?

Rob

ps have you ever tried drying them and using a bulk amount to brew a cup
of
coffee?
Nearly 10 years ago, I got the idea from my sister who collects coffee
grounds from her local coffee store. I asked the owner of a coffee and
juice store near me if he would save coffee grounds and orange rinds for me
and he agreed. This went on for about 4 years until he was evicted for not
paying rent. Then I asked the manager of the Starbucks 3 blocks from my
house if they would save coffee grounds for me, and they agreed. They have
a trash can with a trash bag in it behind their expresso machine. So the
expresso grounds go right into the can, and is already bagged. I pick up
the bags nearly every day except in the Winter and carry them home. It is
now the official policy of Starbucks to make used grounds available to its
customers. They package it in large empty bags. My Starbucks doesn't often
do that because I get the grounds first.
I don't worry much about the C/N ratio. I compost in a container called a
"Bio Stack." The last batch I started with a "Supercan" of ground leaves,
16 bags of coffee grounds (probably averaging 12-15 lbs/bag), and 8 gallons
of kitchen waste I'd collected for several weeks. It's about 3' x 3' x 2.5'
I plan on adding more leaves and a little more coffee.
Because I get so much coffee, I don't compost it all. Instead I throw some
of it directly on my plant beds.
No I've never tried to brew coffee from the grounds. Nearly all the
caffeine and good flavors are extracted when made. I suspect it would not
taste very good.
_________________
John Henry Wheeler
Washington, DC
USDA Zone 7