So I've known for years that using coffee grounds to help improve the texture of soil was a good thing. After all, when we describe good soil, we usually use the term, "texture of coffee grounds" to describe the crumbly-but-dense growing medium plants love most.
But whenever I'd try and save my grounds, I ran into problems with mold...ugly, smelly mold, sitting atop the grounds after they'd been in the tabletop composter for a few days. Perhaps the mold would make a great inoculant against all sorts of bad garden diseases, but then again perhaps not. And I'm not the kind of person who has enough time to run the used grounds outside to the big composter every morning.
So for awhile, I just stopped saving them, but felt guilty every time I threw them away. (Believe me, the combination of Jewish/Eco-Green guilt is massive and never sleeps.)
So I finally opened up some space in the freezer for a one gallon freezer bag's worth of coffee grounds. Every day I plop the used grounds into the bag and stick it back in before anything has the chance to get mold on it. Once the bag is about half-full, I do take it outdoors to the composter and add it to the chicken waste and shavings already fermenting in it. It adds moisture plus contributes to that so-sought-after coffee ground texture that good soil amendments have.
No matter how many years I work in farming/gardening, I'm amazed that I can still sometimes come up with new solutions to old problems.
In somewhat related news, I bought these crazy corn kernels off the internet. They are like tiny, multicolored gems, and produce the most amazing colored corn I've ever seen. I can't wait to get them planted and see what they do! I'm a little late to the party regarding correct planting dates for corn, but being late for stuff has never stopped me from having fun and probably never will.
I do the same thing! Except I use a large Tupperware (actually a Rubbermaid Tupperware knockoff). I made the switch from the bag after I spilled it once. But the Tupperware is a little bit more cumbersome and takes up more space. Can't wait to see the corn!
ReplyDeleteI like the Tupperware idea...perhaps if I can clear out some more space I can do that. I like the idea of being able to re-use whatever container I use, and with plastic bags it's not always possible. I'm excited about the corn, too, I think if I get it in the ground next week it will still be "knee high by the 4th of July" as the old saying goes.
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