If like me you drink a lot of coffee this is a nice little yard hack. Rather than throwing away piles of coffee grounds as most of us do reuse them in the yard. The grounds are slightly acidic so acid loving plats really benefit from them and it is easy to incorporate them into your yard. Simply top dress the soil around plants like citrus and water the grounds will slowly decompose and fertilize the plant.. The idea that in these used coffee grounds you have: an organic, free, and readily available fertilizer. Instead of trashing them use them to get these benefits:
Benefits of Coffee Grounds in the yard:
1.) Repel slugs and snails.
2.) Soil acidifier – this is key in helping potted citrus plats grow.
3.) Repel ants, if they are crawling up your trees sprinkle them in a circle around the base.
4.) In compost to boost the nitrogen, they contain over 2% nitrogen at a ratio of 24:1.
5.) As fertilizer.
The easiest ways to use coffee grounds in the yard are as a solid or as a liquid. I like to roll with option one since simplify mixing it into the soil or topdressing is really easy. I rake them into the soil about 2 inches deep under the leaf canopy of the plant in question. The other option is to make a liquid fertilizer, for this application soak about 2 cups of coffee grounds in a 5 gallon bucket overnight and then apply sparingly water your plants. One word of caution though – apply this fertilizer to already very acidic soil say under a pine tree will have minimal benefit. Your best applications are on potted plants, raised beds and clay or sand based soils.