Finish outdoor seed planting with coffee grounds
garlic bulbs, onions, outdoor seed starting
It has been a blessing that the competition for free coffee grounds at the Starbucks at my work has increased now the weather warmed up and I have freed from the temptation to grab yet another free shiny silver bag of grounds. The reason is, I have put four bags in my compost, worked generous amounts into my vegetable garden and I still have six bags left. Now I am looking at inventive ways to use the rest up. I tried mixing with perlite to make a cheap potting soil (failed still no room for roots) but I believe I have come across one success I thought I would share.
When you are finished planting seeds outdoors apply a thin layer of coffee grounds. This will deter slugs from going after your new seedlings and keep cats from mistaking your nicely loosened and raked soil for their kitty litter.
I have done this for my larger seed plants (peas, garlic, onions, cilantro) but for the small seed plants (carrots, lettuce, spinach) I used the coffee grounds as a seed covering.
So far the results are great. All of my peas/garlic/onions/spinach have sprouted with no signs of pests (four-legged nor zero-legged).
Related posts:
- Using used coffee grounds in your garden/compost
- Planting seeds outside
- Growing seedlings with compostable coffee cups
- Growing in dirt outside
- How to deal with SLUGS in the garden
Tags: cheap, cilantro, coffee grounds, compost, garden seeds, garlic bulbs, led, outdoor plants, vegetables
March 7th, 2009 at 9:55 PM
Gee..never heard this before. Thanks for sharing.
March 8th, 2009 at 9:55 AM
where i’ve spread grounds on the grass (since my topsoil is about 1in deep on top of clay)…anyway where i spread it near the sidewalk i see it gets more interest from dogs sniffing. but haven’t paid enough attention to see if it discourages any kind of deposits….-Frank
March 8th, 2009 at 12:58 PM
blossom, glad to shareAnonymous, I am jealous I have 1/4 in of topsoil on clay. I haven’t heard anything about deterring dogs think the stuff would drive the clean freak cats crazy with the fine grounds on their paws.
March 25th, 2009 at 8:00 AM
It’s also good for deterring squirrels.
June 4th, 2009 at 5:30 AM
Great blog post! I love learning about this online as gardening/landscaping are not only hobbies of mine but I actually do a little bit of work like that during the summer months as a second job. I appreciate your content in your blog and wish that you would keep up the good work
June 11th, 2009 at 7:50 AM
Matt, almost miss the squirrels in my are. Too many houses, not enough mature trees…maybe a few too many predators as well (coyotes, wolves, cougars, oh my)Log Homes, as long as people keep reading, I will keep writing