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 plants really benefit from them and it is easy to incorporate them into your yard.  Simply top dress the soil around plants like citrus; add water and the grounds will slowly decompose and fertilize the plant.. By using coffee grounds you have an organic, free, and readily available fertilizer.  So instead of putting these valuable grounds into the trash can, why not 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 plants grow.

3.)    Repel ants, if they are crawling up your trees sprinkle them in a circle around the base.

4.)    Boost nitrogen in compost, 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 simply 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 when you water your plants.  One word of caution though – applying 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.