Coffee grounds are good organic stuff to add to your garden....just as other kinds of kitchen waste are.
Linda C

I dilute any leftover coffee and water my hostas with them. Some folks (and me) say that putting a ring of coffee grounds around hostas seems to deters slugs. But in general, it doesn't matter if you scatter them on the soil or put a ring around the plant. Worms love them and worms are good for your garden soil.

P.S. don't put down too thick of a layer of coffee grounds. They become water repellent when they dry out.

Used coffee grounds don't acidify the soil, though they sure are a good amendment for the soil and compost pile. Assuming that those coffee grounds are acidic is natural, I guess, since we all know that coffee is acidy. THAT is where the acid is, in your cup of coffee! The grounds are virtually neutral in pH.

It's not a good idea that you use so much of the grounds that you are practically replacing the soil, but a reasonable amount is very beneficial for the soil and soil macro and microorganisms.

When I take the paper basket filter out of my coffee maker, I spread the grounds somewhat evenly over it, then place the whole thing -- paper and all, like a coffee grounds pancake! -- under a section of wood mulch, recover it, and let the worms do the rest :)

Thanks so much everyone. The info was very helpful.

After reading a post last year on this site about coffee grounds keeping the slugs away, I started saving them and using them in a loose ring around my hostas. It appears to be working because I no longer find big bites out of them.
Thanks GardenWeb!! Now if I could only get rid of all the ants that love my yard...

Ants supposedly don't like catnip. I'm trying it. A little concerned about the neghbor's cat though....

Would tea leaves have a good effect as well?

Thanks,
Engi

I use tea leaves much the same way as I use coffee grounds:
scatter around, stir into planting soil, etc.

The main difference I've found is that wet tea leaves "ferment" & get slimey-ish & smell like, well, like they've fermented.

So I break the bag open & scatter them at once.

Coffee grounds sometimes aren't used until the week-end.

By the way, does everyone here know to get bags of grounds from Starbucks?

You just go in & say "Hi, do you have any grounds for the garden?"

It's a Starbucks corporate policy, good for image, plus it reduces their waste disposal expense 'cause *you* are "taking out the garbage"!

Every so often someone will run across a Starbucks that "doesn't do that".

If you encounter this, find out why:
some stores, such as the ones inside Target stores, are franchises, & they abide by Target policy rather than Starbucks.

But if they're a "real" Starbucks, they should give you their "grounds for the garden".

My garden loves Starbucks.

tealeaves are good for roses.

That must be why they call them tea roses? ;o)

Al

Thank you for all of your post. This has been most helpful and I will also go to a starbucks nearby to ask for the coffee grounds for the garden.
Have a wonderful day,
Engi

How about instant coffee for acid loving plants?

Rita

I don't know what's in instant coffee besides coffee.
If it's just coffee, it's just coffee.
But what if it isn't???

Brewing removes most of the acid from the grounds & puts it into your cup, so used grounds, while excellent for the garden as a whole, might not be acidic enough to make any difference to azaleas/camillias/gardenias, etc.

& I don't know what the acid content of un-used coffee grounds or instant coffee would be.

It's an interesting question, though:

You might post on the Soil/Compost/Mulch Forum.
Somebody over there is sure to know!

My tree gardenia has ants! Is this a good thing?
I want to bring it indoors in a months time but don't want to bring the ants along with it. Any suggestions?

I was interested to hear that people basically sprinkle their coffe/tea grounds evenly on/under the soil surface (i've heard about putting them in compost heaps though). Does this mean that I can do this with li'l bits of compostable material around too? Say after cooking with a small bits of veggies, can I just put the pieces evenly on the final location on the garden bed. Oh at least...agitate it a bit several times over a week or so until it breaks down?

(I haven't had time to work on a proper composting yet)

Canoebunny, maybe you can drench the gardenia to drown the ants:

run water through the pot until it's soaked, then put it inside a bigger tub that doesn't have a drainage hole,& fill the tub.

Leave it for several hours, then remove the pot & let the excess water drain away.

weeddummie-

The great things about coffee & tea grounds are that they're already itsy-bitsy, they pretty much don't smell, & they don't have to be broken down by microbes.

If you have a fallow garden (one that hasn't been planted yet), then you easily can do what you're talking about. It's sometimes call sheet composting, composting in place, or lasagna gardening, depending on the details.

You layer greens & browns, & plant the bed once they have composted.

Lasagna gardening is good for creating new beds:
put down several layers of cardboard and/or paper, using many layers & lots of overlap to prevent grass & weed seeds from germinating, then add a layer of nitrogen such as coffee, tea, or kitchen scraps, etc., & top it with some soil & then mulch to keep everything from blowing away.

canoebunny,

Ummm. A soak several hours long is likely to drown your plant's roots!

Beyond that, it won't drown the ants that are living in the rootball. They'll simply climb to the top of the plant.

But you can soak the rootball and also provide a bridge from the pot to the edge of the soaking pan so that the ants have a way to escape.

That said, know that *your* gardenia likely has ants because the plant has scale and/or mealybugs. Take care of the scale or mealies and the ants will leave of their own accord.

I continue to get grounds for the garden from Starbuck's. I love this as I do not actually make enough coffee here at home to feed my garden.
Engi

Hi, I know this is an old post but as a newbie who is trying to save my gardenias (one seems ok, the other is growing leaves, but some are turning very brown and falling off. I suspect from insects, but am not sure yet...), I would like to use coffee to acidify the soil. In my case, there is no Starbucks or equivalent where I live, so I will go for the coffee cups...
My only question: how often should I used coffee on my gardenias? Every time I water them or only occasionally? Should I alternate diluted coffee with regular water?
the same question applies for my hortensia (hydragena)

Thanks for any advice you may have,
enjoy,
Nihal

Nihal - I wish you had made a new posting of your question! We could have said all sorts of things about gardenias...

Okay, your question is a good one. How often you use coffee grounds, or tea leaves, or coffee right from the pot will depend upon the basic acidity of your soil AND how often AND how much you apply! Very few of us have soil that is already so acidic as to be affected by the temporary addition of another acidic material, however, I have no idea what *your* soil is like. Adding coffee and/or coffee grounds IS a very mild temporary acidifier, with the effect usually not lasting much past a heavy rain -- so keeping in mind that unless you feed each plant a quart [liter] of strong coffee every day, they aren't going to overdose because there is so little acid in the product. And my hydrangeas wouldn't blink at having a quart of coffee every day, but they are awfully big plants :)

Frankly, IMHO, coffee grounds are mainly a pleasant form of adding organic material for the plant's immediate use, with the additional benefit that most earthworms like coffee and will come to visit, leaving their wonderful castings for your plant. Liquid coffee is also a slug killer - however, it must be very, very strong (2%) to actually kill them, and it must be applied regularly, especially after every rain.

So to answer you question, you can apply the coffee and/or grounds as often as you wish, with or without additional water. The only thing to watch out for, is that a pile of dried coffee grounds has a tendency to be water repellent -- that tendency can be averted by either scratching the grounds into the soil around the plant or by mixing the grounds with a bit of soil and then applying around the plant.

Thanks Meldy! Your response was very helpful. I have an acidity gauge at home, so will check the soil although I am pretty sure it has close to nil acidity... My plants (Gardenia and the Hydrangeas) are both potted, indoors, and worms are not really an option... but I will try the regular liquid coffee and see how that goes.

Thanks again for all your help,
Enjoy,
Nihal

I have a Gardenia plant that has taken off this summer outdoors.
Although, I am courious as to how well it will do indoors this winter.
I live In Zone 7; and cannot leave it out!
I have been feeding it "coffee" (liquid) over the summer; is it time to stop?????
I still have buds and some blooms.
And.... should I still continue to feed until I don't have blooms???

How often do you need to put coffee grounds around hostas to keep the slugs away?