You’ve been sneaking coffee grounds into your outdoor composter (or maybe right into your garden beds), but you catch yourself wondering ‘are these coffee grounds even good for the soil’?
Don’t worry, we’ll break it down for you. (See what we did there?)
Generally, when making compost gardeners strive for a diversely layered mix of ‘greens’ and ‘browns’. The ‘greens’ meaning nitrogen-rich components, and ‘browns’ meaning carbon-rich ones. Coffee is a sneaky one – even though it is brown in colour, it’s a nitrogen-rich component!
Along with being a good source of nitrogen for plants, coffee grounds have minerals like magnesium, calcium, and potassium that benefit the soil. Earthworms, nature’s soil rototillers, are crazy about coffee grounds! Happy worms make for happy soil.
Coffee grounds don’t need to be reserved strictly for composting. Because coffee grounds are close to pH neutral, they can even be sprinkled directly on top of the soil alongside your plants.
In short: YES! a daily pot of coffee grounds is a great source of organic matter for your soil and composter.
