Other Uses For Used Coffee Grounds In Gardens
Coffee grounds can also be used in your garden for other things.
- Many gardeners like to use used coffee grounds as a mulch for their plants.
- Other uses for coffee grounds include using it to keep slugs and snails away from plants. The theory is that the caffeine in the coffee grounds negatively affects these pests and so they avoid soil where the coffee grounds are found.
- Some people also claim that coffee grounds on the soil is a cat repellent and will keep cats from using your flower and veggie beds as a litter box.
- You can use coffee grounds as worm food too if you do vermicomposting with a worm bin. Worms are very fond of coffee grounds.
What Kind Of Ground Coffee For Espresso Machines
Your coffee grind should be whats known as a fine grind. It should have the appearance and texture of flour. If its too coarse, the coffee wont extract properly and will leave your shot tasting dull.
Understanding how coffee extraction works will help you remember your grind types. Extraction is a term denoting water moving through coffee grounds to extract flavor chemicals. This water doesnt even need to be hot! Cold brew is one of the most popular methods of making coffee and involves soaking coarse grounds in cold, filtered water.
Coarse grounds are also used for the French Press. They should appear like little wood chips. If theyre too fine, theyll pass through the filter and fill your cup with annoying coffee bits. Medium-coarse to medium-fine grinds are used for the pour over or a classic coffee maker. This coffee grinds texture appears and feels very sandy.
Does that mean you cant experiment with your espresso grinds? Far from it. Espresso machines still come with different settings to let you change the temperature or pressure.
Coffee Grounds Repel Ants Snails And Slugs
While coffee may smell great to you and me, the strong smell deters ants and slugs. Sprinkle a ring of coffee grounds around sensitive crops like lettuce and melons .
Theyll only remain potent for a few days before the grounds begin decomposing and feeding your plants , but if youre a daily coffee drinker thats really not an issue.
Skip the pesticide and use coffee grounds as an organic solution instead.
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Scour Your Pots And Pans
The coarse texture of coffee grounds makes them ideal for scrubbing hard-to-clean kitchen utensils.
You can use them to scrape your dishes clean and remove caked-on food from pots and pans. Simply sprinkle the grounds directly onto your pots and pans and scrub as usual. Make sure to rinse thoroughly afterward.
Summary You can use coffee grounds to scour your pots and pans. Their abrasive texture helps scrape away caked-on food.
Using Coffee Grounds In Vermicompost
Vermicompost is a bit different than ordinary composting. While microbes do most of the work in a standard compost pile, vermicomposting is done indoors in small controlled containers. The organic material is fed to worms, which do most of the decomposition.
The process is much faster than regular composting, and the resulting worm castings are extra rich in nutrients. Just take a look at the $20 price tag on a small bag of worm castings at the garden center and youll realize these little guys make black gold!
We used to have a vermicomposting set up in our basement and I assumed that worms would need richer fodder, like carrot tops, melon rinds and more calorie intensive food. Not true.
A bit of research and I learned that worms do great on used coffee grounds. According to Uncle Jims Worm Farm, the biggest issue is that coffee grounds can be too dry if left out. Be sure to wet the used coffee grounds thoroughly before adding them to a vermicomposter.
Holding some of our very own Vermont raised worms.
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Make An Exfoliating Scrub
Coffee grounds make an excellent exfoliator for skin, and the caffeine in coffee help promote healthier, tighter skin. To make your own exfoliating scrub, add coconut oil, vitamin E oil, or jojoba oil to coffee grounds and rub it over your skin while in the shower.
Those little brown granules sure can do a lot more that just perk up your morning! I hope these prove as helpful to you as they have been to me!
What uses for coffee grounds would you add to this list?
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Fertilize With Coffee Grounds
Add coffee grounds directly to the soil in your garden. You can scratch it into the top couple inches of soil, or just sprinkle the grounds on top and leave it alone. In smaller amounts, especially when mixed with dry materials, coffee grounds will give up their nitrogen. Used coffee grounds are actually nearly neutral in pH, so they shouldn’t cause concerns about their acidity. Be careful not to use too many coffee grounds or pile them up. The small particles can lock together, creating a water resistant barrier in your garden.
You can also make coffee ground “tea.” Add 2 cups of used coffee grounds to a 5-gallon bucket of water. Let the “tea” steep for a few hours or overnight. You can use this concoction as a liquid fertilizer for garden and container plants. It also makes a great foliar feed you can spray directly on the leaves and stems of your plants.
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Can You Use Blonde Roast For Espresso
This delicious roast style was crafted by Starbucks several years back. It leans toward gentle and sweet flavor notes for drinkers who dont like the bitterness of espresso roasts.
Blonde roasts make a fantastic espresso shot, so have fun experimenting with your machine until you find the ideal result.
What Coffee To Use For An Espresso Machine
Dont have time to read the whole article? Heres a quick answer to the question:
All coffee can be used for an espresso machine, provided it has the right fine grind. That said, many prefer to use dark roasted coffee due to its stronger flavor.
In fact, you can sometimes find coffee labelled espresso due to its darker roast. If you just bought an espresso machine and want to learn the basics, keep reading. Were going to answer common questions on espresso machine coffee so you can make the most delicious shots around.
Read on to learn a bit more on the topic…
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Should I Use Pre Ground Coffee For Espresso Machines
You can use pre ground coffee for espresso machines as long as its a fine grind. This is a little difficult to find in the grocery store, but you can order fine pre-ground coffee from your local roaster.
Keep in mind that the fresher the grind, the better tasting your coffee. This is because coffee starts losing its flavor the second its ground and releases CO2. Ideally, you should use up your pre ground coffee within the next two weeks to maintain its flavor.
Plants You Shouldnt Use Coffee Grounds For
Some plants are commonly known for being moisture dependent. Thus, their growth can be hindered or even totally interrupted by an acidic surrounding. Also, coffee grounds increase the soils water-retaining, which may serve some plants and harm others. Heres a list of some plants that dont do with coffee grounds:
- Some flowering plants such as orchids, lavender, and black-eyed susan.
- Some vegetables like asparagus.
- Few types of herbs, such as ferns.
- Other plants such as devils ivy or pothos, cactus, century plants, ferns, and rosemary.
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It Appears We May Have Finally Stumbled Across The Best Usefor Coffee Grounds In The Garden Weed Killer
Remember, caffeine inhibits plant growth. This study conducted by the International Plant Propagators Society noted that using coffee grounds did result in lower germination rates. White clover, Palmer amaranth, and perennial rye were the three plants used in their study.
Perhaps a liberal sprinkling of coffee grounds on peskyweeds is just what you need to give them the boot. Or try boiling them to makea concentrated weed-killing spray.
Im sure by now you are a little disheartened with the newsthat coffee isnt the best thing to give you a pest-free garden with a biggeryield. Maybe you are even nervously eyeing that pile of coffee grounds youdumped in the compost bin.
Stimulate Hair Growth And Strip Buildup
Shampoos and styling products often leave residue behind that can dull and weigh down your hair.
Exfoliating your scalp with coffee grounds can help remove buildup and dead skin cells.
Whats more, several test-tube studies have found that caffeine, such as that in used coffee grounds, stimulates human hair growth .
Similarly, human and animal studies have found that applying caffeine to the skin increases blood flow and accelerates hair growth .
Before you shampoo, simply grab a handful of coffee grounds and massage them into your scalp and hair for a few minutes. Then wash and rinse as you normally would.
Do this one to two times per week, or as needed.
Summary Exfoliating your scalp with used coffee grounds can help remove dead skin cells and product buildup and may even speed up hair growth.
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Creative Uses For Unused Coffee Grounds You Probably Never Heard Of Before
If youre a coffee lover like me, then you probably have a lot of coffee grounds lying around right after brewing. However, instead of discarding them into the trashcan, you might be surprised to find out that you can actually use your coffee grounds in a few creative ways.
Thats exactly what were going to talk about here. Without further ado, here are 10 creative uses for unused coffee grounds that you probably never heard of before:
Is It Better To Make A New Cup Of Tea
The National Coffee Association has the greatest response to the question of how many times you may use the same coffee grounds. They suggest never to reuse coffee grounds. After using coffee grounds twice, only bitter unattractive ones remain, according to the organization, since all the excellent coffee tastes are removed during the first batch.
Even if you think your coffee still has some taste and scent, reusing the grounds puts you at risk for infection. The germs and fungus on your coffee grounds will have multiplied even if you reuse them in less than one hour. Given that coffee grounds are damp and warm, it seems natural that infections would like to proliferate there.
Immediately run extra water over the coffee if you suspect your coffee maker has failed to adequately wet the beans. This will prolong the contact period between your coffee and the grounds, allowing you to get more caffeine from your brew. Coffee grounds can only be reused in this situation.
To read more about using coffee grounds more than once click here
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Coffee Grounds For Gardening
Coffee grounds are often used to remove odors, prevent insects & pests, and scrub the body. But did you know that gardeners also use the waste of the coffee to fertilize the garden, improve the soil quality, and so on?
But some dont recommend them for gardening for some downsides of coffee grounds. So keep reading to learn into details about the coffee grounds and how to use them properly in the garden.
Other Uses For Coffee Grounds In The Garden
Coffee grounds arent just for growing vegetables, they make a great addition to the compost or worm bins.
In the compost pile, layer one-third leaves, one-third grass clippings, and one-third coffee grounds. Throw in the coffee filters too as an added carbon source. Tear them up first to hasten decomposition. Dont add more than 15 to 20 percent of the total compost volume or the compost pile may not heat up enough to decompose. It may take three months or longer for it to completely decompose.
Worms apparently have a weakness for coffee as well. Again, too much of a good thing can turn against you, so add just a cup or so of the grounds each week or every other week.
Use coffee grounds as a snail and slug barrier. The grounds are abrasive much like diatomaceous earth.
Make a coffee ground infusion to use as a liquid fertilizer or foliar feed. Add 2 cups of coffee grounds to a 5 gallon bucket of water and let it steep for a few hours to overnight.
If you are an avid coffee consumer and/or you are getting large quantities of grounds from a local coffee shop, store them in a plastic trash bin until you can use them.
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Coffee Grounds As Mulch
Using mulch in your garden can be beneficial, but many people find the cost of mulch too expensive to turn into organic matter. Straw and compost can be used as mulch, but not many people have tons of straw lying around, and compost takes months to create. So it seems as though coffee grounds would be the perfect solution for gardeners in need of mulch. However, coffee grounds can actually harm the roots of seedlings by inhibiting growth if applied too thick. Also, coffee contains caffeine, which has been found to suppress the growth of plants. Coffee grounds are tiny particles that are prone to locking together and forming clumps.
These clumps can become a barrier to water and other nutrients that the plants need to absorb. So what is the answer regarding using coffee grounds as mulch? The solution is to mix coffee grounds with other organic matter such as leaf mold or compost before using it as mulch. You can also rake coffee grounds into the top layer of soil so they cant clump together. The key is to have variable particle sizes in your soil and mulch to promote good soil structure.
Grow Gourmet Mushrooms In Your Old Coffee
Its possible to grow mushrooms with used coffee grounds by mixing them with straw and spores and cultivating them in sealed bags. The bags are first incubated in the dark at 20-24°c for 2-3 weeks, before holes are added and the bags are placed in autumn conditions. Mushrooms can be harvested a couple of weeks later!
The useful thing about using coffee grounds rather than other organic materials is that theyve already been sterilised during the coffee brewing process. Normally, the straw or sawdust needs to be pasteurised using hot water or steam, but using coffee grounds cuts this step out the process.
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Grinding Away: 11 Ways To Reuse Leftover Coffee Grounds
If youve been making more coffee at home lately, there are plenty of uses for your daily brews remnants from composting to cleaning
Coffee is good for more than just waking you up in the morning. Before you toss used grounds, consider putting them to use in the garden, around the house, or in bath and body products.
Repel garden pests Sprinkle grounds liberally around your plants, or the perimeter of your garden, to deter pests such as ants, slugs, and snails.
Invite wormsIf you work the grounds deeper into your soil, youll attract these little garden helpers.
Boost compostCoffee grounds are rich in nitrogen, so they make excellent green matter. Just add the coffee grounds, along with the filter, directly to your compost pile.
Fertilise plantsTo make a coffee fertiliser, mix old grounds with dead grass clippings, brown leaves, or dry straw, then spread the mixture around acid-loving plants like azaleas, hydrangeas, rhododendrons, and roses.
Jump start a harvestTo increase the yield of plants such as carrots and radishes, mix dried coffee grounds in with carrot and radish seeds before you plant them.
Deodorise your fridgeTo neutralise food odours, fill a jar with grounds and place it, uncovered, at the back of the fridge.
Deodorise your hands
Using Coffee Grounds As Fertilizer: What Gardeners Need To Know
Using coffee grounds as fertilizer for your acid-loving plants is fast, simple, and can help cut down on the waste that comes out of your kitchen.
You don’t need to do anything fancy to prepare your used coffee grounds to be used as fertilizer. Simply be sure you’re applying the grounds to acid-loving plants .
Let the coffee grounds cool, and then sprinkle them on top of the soil or mulch. Work the coffee grounds into the top layer of the soil.
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Dying Textiles With Coffee
Anyone whos ever spilled coffee down the front of a white shirt knows that coffee makes an incredibly effective natural dye. It can be nearly impossible to get a set coffee stain out of cloth, which means its a great way to dye fabrics in shades from tan to brown.
Start with used coffee grounds and bring them to a boil in a pot of water. The flavor of twice brewed coffee may be horrible, but it stains just as well the second time its brewed. Adding a few tablespoons of vinegar will help set the dye.
Wring out the fabric and then hang it to dry completely. To help set the dye further, run an iron over the cloth or place it in the dryer on high .
Wondering what coffee dye looks like? Apartment Therapy has some great examples.
Make Natural Brown Dye
A post shared by The Unmaterial Girl on Jun 16, 2017 at 5:03pm PDT
One of the more creative uses for coffee grounds is to turn them into brown dye. Allow a cup of coffee grounds to steep in hot water for 20 to 30 minutes and then strain. Dip standard white paper to create an aged look. This is perfect for school/art projects and other DIY projects such as scrapbooking.
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