Coffee composting
Allotments, as we all know, are definitely back in fashion. Grow your own and get back to nature. Cut the cost of your monthly food bill and put some colour back in your cheeks. Reduce the air-miles of the food that you eat and go for locally sourced produce. It’s time to think about the planet.
As we are expecting more of the soil, it is important to make sure that the earth has its own proper nutrition. And what does this mean? Put some goodness back into the earth and enrich it with some compost. Spring is here and so it’s the perfect time to get mulching.
There is a secret ingredient you may not have heard of though – did you realise that coffee grounds make an excellent compost? Grass cuttings are a traditional make-your-own-compost element, but coffee grounds have similar quantities of nitrogen. If you tend to buy your coffee from a local coffee shop, see if they are happy to give you the leftovers to use – many are.
To make compost, layer ‘wet’ waste (such as grass clippings and coffee grounds) with brown waste (fallen twigs, leaves etc) in the composting container or pile. Top tip (from an online gardener): if your ‘wet’ waste includes kitchen scraps, put the coffee grounds on top of them to keep hungry creatures away. It’s best to situate the compost heap in partial shade. Over time the micro-organisms will transform these natural waste products into compost. An excellent use of coffee remains…