Reuse Spent Coffee Grounds To Help One Staple Crop In Your Vegetable Garden Thrive

If you're both a coffee lover and a gardener, you're in luck. Did you know that your morning brew could do a lot more than just wake you up? There are unexpected uses for leftover coffee grounds in your home and garden. Instead of tossing your spent coffee grounds in the trash, reuse them to help the cabbage crops in your vegetable garden thrive. This staple crop loves nutrient-rich soils, and used coffee grounds are a fantastic way to provide it naturally and cost-effectively. 

Cabbages can grow in climate zones 2 to 11 across the United States, which makes them a great choice for gardeners across the country, from New York to California. They're tough leafy vegetables that can withstand cold temperatures and even some frost, but what they absolutely need is a fertile soil. Soil quality is key to healthy cabbage, which means they can use a bit of help from a fertilizer to grow to their full potential.

This is because cabbages are considered "heavy feeders," vegetables that need a lot of nutrients in order to grow. One nutrient it needs is nitrogen, which is present in soils in varying degrees. While you can buy commercial and synthetic nitrogen fertilizers, why not use a natural and free alternative instead? This is a benefit of coffee grounds; they can add nitrogen to your soil for a healthier garden in no time because they release it as they decompose. 

It's best to feed cabbage with fertilizer at around the midway point of the season. Cabbages take about two to three months to grow, so apply coffee grounds halfway between planting and harvesting. A good rule of thumb is to start fertilizing them at around four or six weeks, when nitrogen is most needed for growth. During the second half of its growth, cabbage doesn't need as much fertilizer.

The safest way to use spent coffee grounds in the garden is to mix them with compost. You can even throw your used paper filters, filled with coffee, straight into the composting bin. If you can't or don't want to compost, no worries. You can use spent coffee grounds in the garden anyway by sprinkling a thin layer on top of the soil. However, make sure to use a rake and mix up the soil with the coffee grounds. This is key because un-raked coffee grounds can risk creating a thick and impermeable layer that could prevent water and moisture from reaching deeper into the soil. 

If you're concerned about coffee grounds smothering your crop, mix up coffee grounds in water instead. Leave the used coffee grounds and water to infuse overnight, and then fill a spray bottle with the mixture. Apply this coffee-water mix to your garden to help your cabbage grow. There are even ways to use coffee grounds to deter pests from your garden.