There was a long, detailed article today in Dave's Garden about using
coffee grounds to feed one's plants.

Anybody have extensive experience with this? Mine is limited to
dumping the grounds on Friday (when I make coffee for the gardener)
on nearby plants, mostly the two side-door plants, Azalea and Hebe,
as well as Roses in m rose path.

My question now relates to long-term, systematic use of coffee grounds
on roses. I can pick up grounds from coffee shops (as mentioned in
Dave's Garden article), but am looking for your real-world experience.

I live in So. Calif coastal. Soil is/was alkaline (adobe) but has been
modified over many years by me and previous owner, so I think it's
neutral (but should verify just for info).

So, if you're into coffee mulching, would you pls share your
experience.

Tx

HB

On Mon, 8 Nov 2010 14:09:44 -0800 (PST), Higgs Boson
wrote:

There was a long, detailed article today in Dave's Garden about using
coffee grounds to feed one's plants.

Anybody have extensive experience with this? Mine is limited to
dumping the grounds on Friday (when I make coffee for the gardener)
on nearby plants, mostly the two side-door plants, Azalea and Hebe,
as well as Roses in m rose path.

My question now relates to long-term, systematic use of coffee grounds
on roses. I can pick up grounds from coffee shops (as mentioned in
Dave's Garden article), but am looking for your real-world experience.

I live in So. Calif coastal. Soil is/was alkaline (adobe) but has been
modified over many years by me and previous owner, so I think it's
neutral (but should verify just for info).

So, if you're into coffee mulching, would you pls share your
experience.

All coffee grounds go into my composter.

"Higgs Boson" wrote in message
...
There was a long, detailed article today in Dave's Garden about using
coffee grounds to feed one's plants.

Anybody have extensive experience with this? Mine is limited to
dumping the grounds on Friday (when I make coffee for the gardener)
on nearby plants, mostly the two side-door plants, Azalea and Hebe,
as well as Roses in m rose path.

My question now relates to long-term, systematic use of coffee grounds
on roses. I can pick up grounds from coffee shops (as mentioned in
Dave's Garden article), but am looking for your real-world experience.

I live in So. Calif coastal. Soil is/was alkaline (adobe) but has been
modified over many years by me and previous owner, so I think it's
neutral (but should verify just for info).

So, if you're into coffee mulching, would you pls share your
experience.

Work fine as a thickish mulch over fallow gardens. Fine coffee grounds are
fine to spread across the lawn as fertiliser in the same manner you would
any other fertiliser, just spread evenly and finely.

rob

I've heard they can be very good for plants, and it's a good idea to put them in your composter as it'll mix the goodness in with the rest of the compost!

A useful property of coffee ground mulch is that it is anti-gastropod. So my coffee grounds go around my Lapageria rosea, which is otherwise the favourite food in the garden for the local snails.

On Nov 8, 2:09*pm, Higgs Boson wrote:
There was a long, detailed article today in Dave's Garden about using
coffee grounds to feed one's plants.

Anybody have extensive experience with this? *Mine is limited to
dumping the grounds on Friday (when I make coffee for the gardener)
on *nearby plants, mostly the two side-door plants, Azalea and Hebe,
as well as Roses in m rose path.

My question now relates to long-term, systematic use of coffee grounds
on roses. *I can pick up grounds from coffee shops (as mentioned in
Dave's Garden article), but am looking for your real-world experience.

I live in So. Calif coastal. Soil is/was alkaline (adobe) but has been
modified over many years by me and previous owner, so I think it's
neutral (but should verify just for info).

So, if you're into coffee mulching, would *you pls share your
experience.

Tx

HB

I wouldn't consider used coffee grounds (UGC's) as a fertilizer - they
are just too low in nutrients to be well-considered for this purpose
(NPK = 2.0, .3, .3 approx.). You would probably need to supplement
with something containing trace elements as well as higher
concentrations of the big 3 (NPK). But as a soil amendment or compost
additive, they are great. I would be cautious about using them as a
mulch or very heavily as a mulch. If they are allowed to dry out, the
surface becomes hydrophobic and repels water, which defeats one of the
primary purposes of mulching. They do seem to have the ability to
deter slugs and snails, but studies have shown that may be just the
after-effects of the caffeine - supposedly spraying plants with stale
coffee will have the same effect.

And remember that UGC's are pH neutral or just barely to the acidic
side of the scale and are not of any particular help in lowering soil
pH

There was a long, detailed article today in Dave's Garden
about using
coffee grounds to feed one's plants.

Anybody have extensive experience with this? Mine is
limited to
dumping the grounds on Friday (when I make coffee for the
gardener)
on nearby plants, mostly the two side-door plants, Azalea
and Hebe,
as well as Roses in m rose path.

My question now relates to long-term, systematic use of
coffee grounds
on roses. I can pick up grounds from coffee shops (as
mentioned in
Dave's Garden article), but am looking for your real-world
experience.

I live in So. Calif coastal. Soil is/was alkaline (adobe)
but has been
modified over many years by me and previous owner, so I
think it's
neutral (but should verify just for info).

So, if you're into coffee mulching, would you pls share
your
experience.

Tx

HB


All my coffee grounds go directly into my gardens where I
till
them in. Worms love the grounds and so that's a second
bonus.

Donna
WA zone 8-9
and it's COLD today.

"gardengal" wrote in message
...
On Nov 8, 2:09 pm, Higgs Boson wrote:
There was a long, detailed article today in Dave's Garden about using
coffee grounds to feed one's plants.

Anybody have extensive experience with this? Mine is limited to
dumping the grounds on Friday (when I make coffee for the gardener)
on nearby plants, mostly the two side-door plants, Azalea and Hebe,
as well as Roses in m rose path.

My question now relates to long-term, systematic use of coffee grounds
on roses. I can pick up grounds from coffee shops (as mentioned in
Dave's Garden article), but am looking for your real-world experience.

I live in So. Calif coastal. Soil is/was alkaline (adobe) but has been
modified over many years by me and previous owner, so I think it's
neutral (but should verify just for info).

So, if you're into coffee mulching, would you pls share your
experience.

Tx

HB

I wouldn't consider used coffee grounds (UGC's) as a fertilizer - they
are just too low in nutrients to be well-considered for this purpose
(NPK = 2.0, .3, .3 approx.). You would probably need to supplement
with something containing trace elements as well as higher
concentrations of the big 3 (NPK). But as a soil amendment or compost
additive, they are great. I would be cautious about using them as a
mulch or very heavily as a mulch.

if fallowing a garden over a season or more coffee grounds are fine as a
mulch. I have done it a number of times and the garden and soil has been
fine. Maybe not in a dry season I agree.

rob

On 11/9/10 8:53 AM, in article ,
"echinosum" wrote:


Higgs Boson;904722 Wrote:
So, if you're into coffee mulching, would you pls share your
experience.
A useful property of coffee ground mulch is that it is anti-gastropod.
So my coffee grounds go around my Lapageria rosea, which is otherwise
the favourite food in the garden for the local snails.





So it would be a good thing for my hostas too!

I have been using it as a general mulch in the garden when I can find it at
Charbucks - I'm not shy, I'll just walk in and nab it!


I've heard it works as a sand/sub for icy driving, but I haven't tried it
yet!

Cheryl

On Nov 10, 3:55*am, Cheryl Isaak wrote:
On 11/9/10 8:53 AM, in article ,

"echinosum" wrote:

Higgs Boson;904722 Wrote:
So, if you're into coffee mulching, would *you pls share your
experience.
A useful property of coffee ground mulch is that it is anti-gastropod.
So my coffee grounds go around my Lapageria rosea, which is otherwise
the favourite food in the garden for the local snails.

Let's hear i for anti-gastropods! I lost some baby beets to the Bad G
(I think)
so will strew my Friday grounds out there & hope for the best.

So it would be a good thing for my hostas too!

I have been using it as a general mulch in the garden when I can find it at
Charbucks - I'm not shy, I'll just walk in and nab it!

Hah! "Charbucks" - Love it. I tried them when they first came to
town years
(decades?) ago, but never got used to the burned taste.

Tx, Cheryl

I've heard it works as a sand/sub for icy driving, but I haven't tried it
yet!

No icy driving here. Just awful congestion, getting worse & worse.

HB

On 11/10/10 3:27 PM, in article
, "Higgs
Boson" wrote:

On Nov 10, 3:55*am, Cheryl Isaak wrote:
On 11/9/10 8:53 AM, in article ,

"echinosum" wrote:

Higgs Boson;904722 Wrote:
So, if you're into coffee mulching, would *you pls share your
experience.
A useful property of coffee ground mulch is that it is anti-gastropod.
So my coffee grounds go around my Lapageria rosea, which is otherwise
the favourite food in the garden for the local snails.

Let's hear i for anti-gastropods! I lost some baby beets to the Bad G
(I think)
so will strew my Friday grounds out there & hope for the best.

So it would be a good thing for my hostas too!

I have been using it as a general mulch in the garden when I can find it at
Charbucks - I'm not shy, I'll just walk in and nab it!

Hah! "Charbucks" - Love it. I tried them when they first came to
town years
(decades?) ago, but never got used to the burned taste.

Tx, Cheryl
Anytime - supposedly some of my "local" places will do it too. I'll ask next
spring.

I've heard it works as a sand/sub for icy driving, but I haven't tried it
yet!

No icy driving here. Just awful congestion, getting worse & worse.

HB

Not sure where you are off the top of my head, but I'm in the frozen north.
Shortly, I'll put out the driveway markers and such. All the garden
ornaments are in or on the deck. (got this great brass colored whirling
sunflower and it looks great in a pot the deck.

C

Cheryl Isaak wrote:
On 11/10/10 3:27 PM, in article
,
"Higgs
Boson" wrote:

On Nov 10, 3:55 am, Cheryl Isaak wrote:
On 11/9/10 8:53 AM, in article ,

"echinosum" wrote:

Higgs Boson;904722 Wrote:
So, if you're into coffee mulching, would you pls share your
experience.
A useful property of coffee ground mulch is that it is
anti-gastropod.
So my coffee grounds go around my Lapageria rosea, which is
otherwise
the favourite food in the garden for the local snails.

Let's hear i for anti-gastropods! I lost some baby beets to the Bad
G
(I think)
so will strew my Friday grounds out there & hope for the best.

So it would be a good thing for my hostas too!

I have been using it as a general mulch in the garden when I can
find it at
Charbucks - I'm not shy, I'll just walk in and nab it!

Hah! "Charbucks" - Love it. I tried them when they first came to
town years
(decades?) ago, but never got used to the burned taste.

Tx, Cheryl
Anytime - supposedly some of my "local" places will do it too. I'll
ask next
spring.

I've heard it works as a sand/sub for icy driving, but I haven't
tried it
yet!

No icy driving here. Just awful congestion, getting worse & worse.

HB

Not sure where you are off the top of my head, but I'm in the frozen
north.
Shortly, I'll put out the driveway markers and such. All the garden
ornaments are in or on the deck. (got this great brass colored
whirling
sunflower and it looks great in a pot the deck.

C

For those in the south... Drive way markers, I put mine out last week.
These are useful to help find your driveway when then the snow comes
around. Especially those that live in the country. Get off the driveway
entrance and the car gets stuck in the drainage ditches. I remove them
for summer because they get in the way for lawn mowing.

I put my coffee grounds in the compost.

Sorry for the post, if it is too simplistic

--
Enjoy Life... Dan L (Garden in zone 5a Michigan)

On Nov 11, 3:50*am, Cheryl Isaak wrote:
On 11/10/10 3:27 PM, in article
, "Higgs



Boson" wrote:
On Nov 10, 3:55 am, Cheryl Isaak wrote:
On 11/9/10 8:53 AM, in article ,

"echinosum" wrote:

Higgs Boson;904722 Wrote:
So, if you're into coffee mulching, would you pls share your
experience.
A useful property of coffee ground mulch is that it is anti-gastropod..
So my coffee grounds go around my Lapageria rosea, which is otherwise
the favourite food in the garden for the local snails.

Let's hear i for anti-gastropods! *I lost some baby beets to the Bad G
(I think)
so will strew my Friday grounds out there & hope for the best.

So it would be a good thing for my hostas too!

I have been using it as a general mulch in the garden when I can find it at
Charbucks - I'm not shy, I'll just walk in and nab it!

Hah! *"Charbucks" - Love it. *I tried them when they first came to
town years
(decades?) ago, but never got used to the burned taste.

Tx, Cheryl

Anytime - supposedly some of my "local" places will do it too. I'll ask next
spring.

I've heard it works as a sand/sub for icy driving, but I haven't tried it
yet!

No icy driving here. *Just awful congestion, getting worse & worse.

HB

Not sure where you are off the top of my head, but I'm in the frozen north.
Shortly, I'll put out the driveway markers and such. All the garden
ornaments are in or on the deck. (got this great brass colored whirling
sunflower and it looks great in a pot the deck.

C

I'm in So. Calif coastal. We have (or had, until global warming*) no
real "winter". Daylight get shorter, thanks in part to *&^%^%$$
Daylight Savings ( which everybody hates and nobody seems to make
Congress get rid of it). Temps at the beach rarely get below 40's at
night.
Winter sunsets over the ocean are magically beautiful. I can grow
food all years; just vary the cops by season.

That said, I really would like some snow, but I have to travel to the
Far North and Far South to enjoy the white stuff.

*Normal, stable weather patterns are so ****ed up the last year or
two! We had 96 degrees last week, and now it's down to 609-70s.

Any climate change skeptics still left out there -- and this is a
smart enough group that I doubt if you are fooled by govt and
corporate spin -- should read "CENSORING SCIENCE" by Mark Bowen. Even
for moi, who doesn't believe much of Washington/corporate spin, this
was a shocker. Centering around the career of JIM HANSEN, one of the
greatest scientists of this era, "Censoring Science" uses original
sources to document how the Bush Admin, and before him, going back to
Reagan, partially skipping Clinton, ACTIVELY censored/suppressed
reports produced by honest scientists they tried, and often succeeded,
in intimidating at NASA, NOAA, and other agencies concerned with Earth
Science.

Over 30 years ago, Jim Hansen sounded the alarm about anthropogenic
causes of global warming. Now, we may be at the "tipping point";
phrase he coined to denote the point at which the damage cannot be
reversed. Even if it could have been halted, it would have taken
centuries to restore Earth's balance/

One wonders how these corporate/government criminals manage to ignore
that their children and grandchildren will be living in the degraded
world they helped create...

In article
,
Higgs Boson wrote:

On Nov 11, 3:50*am, Cheryl Isaak wrote:
On 11/10/10 3:27 PM, in article
, "Higgs



Boson" wrote:
On Nov 10, 3:55 am, Cheryl Isaak wrote:
On 11/9/10 8:53 AM, in article ,

"echinosum" wrote:

Higgs Boson;904722 Wrote:
So, if you're into coffee mulching, would you pls share your
experience.
A useful property of coffee ground mulch is that it is anti-gastropod.
So my coffee grounds go around my Lapageria rosea, which is otherwise
the favourite food in the garden for the local snails.

Let's hear i for anti-gastropods! *I lost some baby beets to the Bad G
(I think)
so will strew my Friday grounds out there & hope for the best.

So it would be a good thing for my hostas too!

I have been using it as a general mulch in the garden when I can find it
at
Charbucks - I'm not shy, I'll just walk in and nab it!

Hah! *"Charbucks" - Love it. *I tried them when they first came to
town years
(decades?) ago, but never got used to the burned taste.

Tx, Cheryl

Anytime - supposedly some of my "local" places will do it too. I'll ask
next
spring.

I've heard it works as a sand/sub for icy driving, but I haven't tried
it
yet!

No icy driving here. *Just awful congestion, getting worse & worse.

HB

Not sure where you are off the top of my head, but I'm in the frozen north.
Shortly, I'll put out the driveway markers and such. All the garden
ornaments are in or on the deck. (got this great brass colored whirling
sunflower and it looks great in a pot the deck.

C

I'm in So. Calif coastal. We have (or had, until global warming*) no
real "winter". Daylight get shorter, thanks in part to *&^%^%$$
Daylight Savings ( which everybody hates and nobody seems to make
Congress get rid of it). Temps at the beach rarely get below 40's at
night.
Winter sunsets over the ocean are magically beautiful. I can grow
food all years; just vary the cops by season.

How do you vary the cops? Here the cops are always the same. If they
aren't shooting unarmed black men, they are busting the heads of war
protesters. In Denver, they even brag about getting up early to beat the
crowds. Although, that may be better than turning "Xe Services LLC"
(Blackwater) loose, like they did in New Orleans.

That said, I really would like some snow, but I have to travel to the
Far North and Far South to enjoy the white stuff.

Poor dear, enjoy the white stuff do you, and it's soooooo far away.
Until a way is found to send others excess to you, you may want to stick
out a thumb and . . .

1.
Head southeast on Lincoln Blvd toward Broadway St
0.5*mi

2.
Turn left at the 1st cross street onto Olympic Blvd (signs for Santa
Monica Fwy/Los Angeles)
463*ft

3.
Merge onto I-10 E via the ramp to Los Angeles
15.6*mi

4.
Take exit 16B on the left for CA-60 E/Pomona/I-5 S toward Santa Ana
0.3*mi

5.
Merge onto CA-60 E
51.4*mi

6.
Take exit 52B for Main St
0.1*mi

7.
Turn right at Main St
0.7*mi

8.
Turn left at 3rd St
1.7*mi

9.
Turn right to merge onto I-215 S
18.6*mi

10.
Take exit 15 for CA-74 E toward Hemet
0.3*mi

11.
Slight right at CA-74 E
31.6*mi

12.
Slight left at CA-243 N
3.9*mi

13.
Slight right at S Circle Dr
194*ft

Idyllwild, CA

125 miles,
2 hours 22 minutes.

or if that is too far, you can get to Arrowhead Lake in 1 and 3/4 hr.,
but I'll let you Google that one.

Nice thing about Idyllwild is that it is just above Palm Springs, and
you can make the run back by Hadley's Dried Fruit Stand.


*Normal, stable weather patterns are so ****ed up the last year or
two! We had 96 degrees last week, and now it's down to 609-70s.

Any climate change skeptics still left out there -- and this is a
smart enough group that I doubt if you are fooled by govt and
corporate spin -- should read "CENSORING SCIENCE" by Mark Bowen.
The Republican War on Science by Chris Mooney,
http://www.amazon.com/Republican-War...dp/0465046762/
ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1289512917&sr=1-1

Even
for moi,
meme pour toit?

who doesn't believe much of Washington/corporate spin, this
was a shocker. Centering around the career of JIM HANSEN, one of the
greatest scientists of this era, "Censoring Science" uses original
sources to document how the Bush Admin, and before him, going back to
Reagan, partially skipping Clinton, ACTIVELY censored/suppressed
reports produced by honest scientists they tried, and often succeeded,
in intimidating at NASA, NOAA, and other agencies concerned with Earth
Science.

Over 30 years ago, Jim Hansen sounded the alarm about anthropogenic
causes of global warming. Now, we may be at the "tipping point";
You seem to be looking in the rearview mirror.

Eaarth: Making a Life on a Tough New Planet by Bill McKibben
http://www.amazon.com/Eaarth-Making-...805090568/ref=
sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1289515418&sr=1-1

Ch. 4
LIGHTLY, CAREFULLY, GRACEFULLY
p.154

Every climate model we've
got shows that "by the end of the century an average July day will
almost certainly be hotter than the hottest heat waves we experi-
ence now," according to a team of American researchers. And
those hottest heat waves decimate our fields, in Italy and France,
for example, the 2003 heat wave that killed tens of thousands
of people also cut corn yields by a third. "It simply becomes too
hot for growing plants," says Rosamond Naylor, the director of
the Program for Food Security and the Environment at Stan-
ford. "The heat damages the crop's ability to produce enough
yield."11 A 2009 study found that a million square kilometers of
Africa might soon be too hot to grow crops. (That's an area
larger than the United States plants in its eight largest field crops
combined.) "Maize will basically no longer be possible" to culti-
vate across wide swaths, the study found; there will simply be
too many hot days. . .

2100 the average temperature in the growing season will be hot-
ter than "any temperatures recorded there to date." Past a cer-
tain point, corn won't fertilize, rice won't grow.13 And people
can't work, at least not as hard. A new study from the Australian
researcher Tord Kjellstrom found that by 2030 Indian laborers
would be 30 percent less productive, simply because of increased
heat. As one Bengali farmer put it, "Working under the open sky
during summer has become nearly impossible‹for farmers and
their cattle alike."14 . . .

Droughts have returned to the United States, too, even though
people have stopped wasting so much water in their homes. The
federal government says that thirty-six states face water shortages
in the next five years,18 which is bad news for farming, since 70
percent of the water we use goes for irrigation, and irrigated fields
supply as much as 40 percent of the world's food. By 2007 half of
Australia's farmland was in a declared drought, and a farmer
was committing suicide every four days.19 In California, in the


156 € EAARTH

spring of 2009, groups of farmworkers, many wearing surgical
masks against the blowing dust, marched for four days to
demand the federal government somehow supply them with
more water‹the year's drought had already cost the state 23,700
jobs and $477 million in revenue.20 Farmers are already letting
orchard trees die for lack of water to keep them alive; in the Cen-
tral Valley unemployment grew 9.4 percent in a year through
July 2009. "There's no water, so there's not much work," Kiki
Torres told a reporter.21

As we melt those glaciers and snowfields in the continental
interiors, things will only get worse. In the first major speech he
gave after being named secretary of energy, the Nobel laureate
Steven Chu told an audience in his native California: "I don't
think the American public has gripped in its gut what could hap-
pen." If we don't dramatically slow global warming, he said, the
rapid melt of the Sierra snowpack means "we're looking at a sce-
nario where there's no more agriculture in California," adding, "I
don't actually see how they can keep their cities going," either.

phrase he coined to denote the point at which the damage cannot be
reversed. Even if it could have been halted, it would have taken
centuries to restore Earth's balance/

One wonders how these corporate/government criminals manage to ignore
that their children and grandchildren will be living in the degraded
world they helped create...

Egregiously OFF TOPIC
--
- Billy
"Fascism should more properly be called corporatism because it is the
merger of state and corporate power." - Benito Mussolini.
http://www.democracynow.org/2010/7/2/maude
http://english.aljazeera.net/video/m...515308172.html

Coffee frounds are great for alkaline soil. I put a lot around my
hydrangeas. I'm getting more redish blossoms.
--
Bud