But yesterday I stopped by a different Starbucks. They didn't have any grounds in the cute little silver bags, so I asked if they had any in the big regular garbage bags. The manager said sure, meet me out back.

When I drove around, he already had 4-5 big big bag, which I was of course, thrilled to take. I dumped one in the compost, but then I noticed the others were filled with just straight grounds, no filters. So I took the rest of the bags and scattered a nice mulch over all the beds.

And this morning my yard smells like a Starbucks!

Your yard smells like sweet perfume to me!!

Who knew a cat could be so healthy minded?

It is a lovely smell, Bev; I don't know how long it will last. While I've pretty much quit drinking coffee, I still love the smell. And it was a nice way to get that olfactory fix.

It's not like anything else in the yard is smelling good right now!

If I had another bin (or two!) I could just keep filling them up. But my landlords brother thinks they would detract from the junked motorcycles, broken stairmaster, rusted grills and wooden packing pallets he's got strewn around the yard.

I've just been mulching with them and composting them in the veggie bed. Alison is right - my yard smells great!

That said -- I know it seems a little embarrassing the first time you ask. You might want to try a stand-alone Starbucks where they'll definitely be familiar with the program.

And stand your ground! Er... grounds!

It's not hard to separate the filters out. A little gunky, but it's just coffee.

I think it's a decent mulch. I've wondered about the acidity, but a lot of folks I've talked to say it's not a problem; the acid leaches out when you brew the coffee.

On the other, I've talked to people who talk about digging coffee grounds in around acid-loving plants. So... I'm hedging my bets and putting it down -- just not very thickly.

Mike G

This year, all the bulbs I planted in the beds with the espresso mulch came up unmolested. Everything else came up as well, so I'm not worried about the pH of the soil, but I wonder if it was the coffee grounds that kept the squirrels away? Anyone have any thoughts or experience with that?

I'm going to ...ahem... squirrel away that idea, and remember to sprinkle the grounds around when I next plant tasty bulbs!

To be safe, I didn't put the grounds down very thickly. Normally I just dump the grounds in my compost bin, but I was so amazed this winter when two of the bags were pure grounds, no filters or anything, that I felt I had to try something different.

Definitely, definitely, definitely get some composting started. You'll thank yourself forever, and wonder why you didn't start sooner. It's like printing money in your yard! (Small denomination bills, to be sure, but money all the same!)

Set-ups can be as simple or elaborate as you want. You can invest in the expensive plastic tumblers, or just pound some stakes in the ground and wrap snow fencing around it. I know folks who carefully measure the percentage of nitrogen, etc; and I know folks who just dump their dead leaves and grass clipping in the fall.

There are some basic rules; you want a pile of a certain size so it can start generating heat and break down the elements faster; you want to make sure it has regular moisture; and you want to keep a mix of 'browns' -- dead material -- and 'greens' -- fresh stuff; but everything else is pretty flexible. (Just to keep things confusing, coffee grouinds are considered 'greens' -- altho' they're brown!)

I've got a big plastic bin my sister bought at OddLots tucked under the fire escape. Since I have a small yard and live alone, I don't generate very much compostables -- so I use shredded newspapers, coffee grounds, and the squeezings from the juice bar in my neighborhood. If I spent more effort, I'm sure I could get compost faster, but for very little effort, I've got a fair amount of the stuff.

Check out the Soil, Compost and Mulch forum here on GardenWeb to get started and ask questions as you go along. They're great!

The big big bags I got from the stand alone Starbucks were the extra large industrial trash bags -- I had to use both hands and some oomph to toss them into the trunk!

I've only gone to the stand alone a few times, but I do stop off at the drive thru about once a week. They usually have the grounds bagged and sitting beside the counter, and you can snatch them up without even saying anything. If they don't have any out, I'll ask, and they often will hand me one or two medium sized bags, like a kitchen garbage back, of grounds and filters.

Once you get started, you'll have fun!

I can see that the grounds would make a crust if they were thick, or in full sun. Mine were in a partially shady bed, and were on top of old pine bark mulch, which broke it up enough that it didn't form a crust. I'm definitely using it around any lily bulbs I plant next year.