Tuesday, October 7, 2008

Using old coffee grounds

Here's a tip I picked up from my pizza delivery guy: put used coffee grounds on your rose bush! Acid loving plants like roses, rhododendrons and azalea love coffee grounds. It stimulates growth and (according to the Dominoes guy) it discourages pesky beatles.

Summer was almost over when he gave me this tip and I've tried it. I don't know if the coffee grounds helped but they certainly didn't hurt and it kept them out of my trash can.

Here's a couple of pics from the weekend:



4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Great idea! My poor roses and azaleas need some help, and we are big coffee drinkers so this is great. How often should you apply the grounds?

Minda said...

I applied them once a week. I am the lone coffee drinker in the house so I accumulate a week's worth and then spread it around the rose bush.

Thanks for visiting my blog!

Jeannie said...

Last year my roses looked horrible ... I suppose from years of neglect in a rental home. When we moved here I tried all sorts of fertilizers and then coffee grounds with only a little bit of improvement. Last fall I buried banana peels and coffee grounds and crushed egg shells under a fairly thick layer of mulch when I trimmed the roses back and this spring they were loaded with blooms.

I learned the hard way that you can put too many coffee grounds on your roses and then they grow all sorts of nasty fungi which can infect your roses. It's probably a good thing that you don't have too many but if you do find that you have an abundant supply just spread them out on a cookie tray or cardboard box to dry a bit so they don't "grow" stuff. Coffee grounds are also excellent fertilizer for other plants and great for composting!

Anonymous said...

*bucks will give you used coffee grounds in large sacks. Just ask next time you are in there and if they have some they will give it to you.
-kattmaxx