New Uses for Coffee Grounds: Coffee Grounds as Pest Repellent and Roses Love Coffee Grounds

Many of you are probably on the lookout for effective green tips. FrontStreet Coffee has one to suggest: recycle your used coffee grounds. Mixed into soil, coffee works as a natural fertilizer, and spent grounds are a rich source of nutrients for the garden. Recycling them does not only help gardeners; it also keeps waste out of landfills.

The Greenhouse Gases from Coffee Grounds

When coffee grounds are dumped into landfill, they release methane, a greenhouse gas. It is well known that methane is more harmful than carbon dioxide, another greenhouse gas that contributes to global warming. If we can keep coffee grounds out of landfills, we move a step closer to eliminating greenhouse gas emissions.

Coffee grounds are high in nitrogen. Scattered over soil before rain or watering, they slowly release that nitrogen. When compost is mixed with coffee grounds, it raises soil temperature and keeps it high for extended periods.

Those high temperatures kill weeds and let the garden thrive. Coffee grounds are also acidic, which suits "acid-loving" plants. Roses, camellias, blueberries and azaleas all do better when coffee grounds are worked into the soil around them.

Roses Also Love Coffee

Recycling coffee grounds also feeds worms and keeps troublesome insects away. Earthworms enjoy eating used grounds, which supports their growth and reproduction, and a healthy worm population is an excellent way to keep a garden thriving. Worm activity matters because the worms mix the soil and help mineralize the vegetation in it.

Coffee has a strong aroma, one that can be too much for humans. For insects such as ants, slugs and snails, that same scent works as a repellent.

Used coffee grounds are easy to find. Local coffee shops, gas stations, schools and workplaces are all good sources. You can ask a coffee vendor to save the grounds for you and arrange a time to stop by and collect your "green fertilizer."

FrontStreet Coffee Recommendation

Your garden gets the grounds, but the cup deserves something just as rewarding. If you like bright, floral and fruit-acid coffees, the FrontStreet Gudingding Cooperative is a great first stop: a light-roasted washed Yirgacheffe with crisp citrus, ripe berries and floral notes, backed by a green-tea sweetness that lingers gently.

For even more fruit, the FrontStreet Ethiopia Huakui leans tropical, with strawberry, passion fruit and jackfruit aromas, very low bitterness and a smooth, juicy body that makes it an easy everyday pour-over.

And for a light roast with real snap, the FrontStreet Kenya Cherry Tomato brings cherry tomato, smoked plum and a lively acidity from the Sika region, grown at 1,550-1,750 meters from the SL28 and SL34 varieties.