Fertilizing Soil With Coffee Grounds

 

Fertilizing soil with coffee grounds and kitchen waste:

Coffee grounds contain a good amount of the essential nutrient nitrogen as well as some potassium and phosphorus, plus other micronutrients.  The quantity and proportions of these nutrients vary, but coffee grounds can be used as a slow-release fertilizer.

To use it as a fertilizer sprinkle the used grounds thinly onto your soil, or add them to your compost heap. Paper coffee filters can go in too.  Despite their color, for the purposes of composting, they are a ‘green’, or nitrogen-rich organic material.  Make sure to balance them with enough ‘browns’ – carbon-rich materials such as dry leaves, dried grass, or small shredded paper pieces.

Coffee grounds are particularly suitable for fertilizing plants that require acidic garden soil, such as hydrangeas and rhododendrons or cucumbers, zucchini, and strawberries.  Always allow the coffee grounds to cool and dry well - if they are moist, they will mold easily. 

Another benefit: Slugs and ants do not like coffee grounds.

Food scraps are also a good source of fertilizer too.  Fish waste, for example, is a good tomato fertilizer.  Bury the fish remains about eight inches below before you plant the young tomatoes.  By the time the roots get there, the fish has rotted.  Other kitchen waste such as vegetable and fruit scraps, eggshells, tea leaves, crumbled newspapers, and shredded office paper, but also garden waste such as dried lawn cuttings, small pieces of shrub, and tree cuttings can go on the compost.  

There, they decompose into nutrient-rich, humus-rich soil - perfect for fertilizing or as a soil conditioner.  However, maintaining the compost should be turned over or moved approximately every two to three months.

Much easier is it to dig a 20-inch hole in the garden bed, fill it with the above-mentioned items in layers with a bit of soil and top it with soil.  Poke some holes into this and cover it with a flat rock or mesh to deter critters to dig in. Usually, in summer you will have the most beautiful, healthy garden soil within three weeks.

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How to Care for Long-Blooming Roses

Roses, besides being magnificent flowers, have a long history. The oldest rose planted today was in existence some 3,000 years ago according to The Old Farmers Almanac.

Roses crave sunlight and generous helpings of food and water. In most climates, provide at least six hours of sunlight per day. If you live in a very hot climate, plant them where they are shaded from the hot afternoon sun. When watering, water at the base of the plant - water the soil, never pour it over the plant!  Provide at least an inch or two of water per week.  Natural cedar mulch helps to retain moisture in the soil and evens out temperatures in winter as well as on hot summer days.

Coffee Grounds
The reason coffee grounds are so good for rose bushes is because of their high nitrogen content. Roses need neutral to acidic soil, and if you add coffee grounds, it will help take the pH from neutral to acidic. ... Plus, astonishingly as it may seem, many bugs and pests are repelled by coffee grounds.

When to Plant Roses
Bare-root roses: Plant in late autumn at leaf fall, and from late winter to early spring, before growth resumes. Avoid planting in the middle of winter when the ground is frozen. Container-grown roses: Plant all year round, provided the ground is neither frozen, nor dry. Plant roses in rich, well-draining soil. When planting, mix organic matter, such as compost or ground bark, into excavated soil you'll use to backfill the planting hole.


Rose Pruning
Use very sharp rose scissors. If the machine does not cut properly, there is a risk of bruising, the cutting point is not clean and is a target for disease.

An old, slightly neglected bed rose can be shortened more radically, which means "rejuvenating", a young climbing rose just wants to be cleaned out.

Cut all old, dead, and very weak shoots - regardless of the type of rose. Men tend to cut a lot, women usually cut far too little : )

Look for an outward-facing eye, about 20 to 60 centimeters above the ground, place scissors in a fourth-degree angle just above it, and cut off smoothly.

Take a step back and examine your work.  Be stern with yourself and rework.  Ten centimeters more might still work. If you feel that you have cut too much off, it is probably just right.  You can't cut off too much.

Every five years even the climbing rose can tolerate an incision to rejuvenate.  Unlike haircutting, shortening the shoots stimulates growth.  Because roses only bloom on new wood, this is also good for the flowering.  Only if you cut, can the rose bloom again, the cut gives it vitality.

Otherwise, each rose is pruned differently: The shrub roses should grow bushy, the noble rose has only one flower per stem, the bed rose looks nicer if it also bears flowers on the lower levels.  Bed roses don't not have too much-lignified stems, so it must be pruned at the bottom.

You should also avoid spraying, for example, if one plant has developed rust, you must take care that it does not infect the others.  To prevent this, cut off all infested leaves, even a radical cut can be advisable.

Black Spots and Rust: 
I have had the best experience with a simple household remedy:
I bought a big bag of cornflour, lightly sprayed the rose with water, and then sprinkled the cornflour all over the plant.  Two days later the procedure again and the rose was free of the ugly spots.

The annual rose pruning should be done in spring, to avoid severe frost.  Once the forsythia has withered, is the best time.  In autumn you can do a slight pruning, then everything looks a bit tidier - but you also would miss the pretty rose hips.

The tart reddish-orange hips of rugosa rose hips are used for jams, jellies, syrups, pies, teas, and wine. Check out our Rose Hip Jam recipe.  Rose petals are edible and can be tossed into salads for color, candied to decorate cakes, or distilled to make rose water.


See videos about pruning roses:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J6la_YikkQc
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BN3G-wpWtFY

Like to have more rose plants?
Propagation - How to grow roses from cuttings:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xw4d-s9N8zE

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How to Expel Squirrels, Gophers, and Raccoons from Gardens

A friend of mine was complaining about her dog who was constantly digging in one of her flower beds. I discovered a big mess. A closer look showed that there was a kind of cave underneath the roots of a nearby cedar tree. No wonder - the dog was smelling a gopher or groundhog! But that was not all, squirrels played havoc, and a neighbor told me about raccoons that have been seen in the area.

What these critters do: they chomp on flower bulbs, dig up your favorite plants, eat the roots, might try to open garbage cans, and otherwise love to wreck your garden. I studied tips on the Internet and found the following tips


How You Can Shoo These Animals Away:

Irish Spring Soap
Protect plants by grating some Irish Spring soap around your plants. Squirrels can't stand the smell of it and will stay away.
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Coffee Grounds
While you might find the scent of coffee delicious, squirrels don't... Just sprinkle some fresh grounds on the soil surrounding the plants to keep squirrels away. Every week, add a new layer of coffee grounds. More tips:
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Garlic
Another smell that gophers, squirrels and other critters dislike is that of garlic. Cut it in pieces and sprinkle them into the flower bed
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Dogs
Dogs that spend a lot of time in the garden may be able to scare at least squirrels off. While your pet may not actually catch the squirrels, their presence alone will encourage the critters eventually to dine elsewhere.
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Cayenne Pepper
Sprinkle cayenne pepper, red pepper flakes, paprika, or other combinations of spicy seasonings around the base of the plants. Almost all animals despise it.
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Plant Lots of Mint
Squirrels tend to avoid the strong smell of peppermint plants. Try planting mint pots at the edges of your vegetable garden to keep most thieves away. However, you need to plant mint into pots to avoid they are taking over your garden. Place some newspaper sheets and/or wire screen at the bottom of the planting pot to avoid that roots are sneaking through the watering hole and multiply in your garden beds.
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Don’t Plant Tulips
Instead plant daffodils, snowdrops, allium, and hyacinth. Daffodils contain a toxin that makes their bulbs inedible, and squirrels appear not to like the taste of them. After planting place a flat stone on top of the bulbs, but don’t forget to remove them in early spring.
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Netting and Fencing
Protecting your vegetables and edible plants with netting will help curb squirrels' (and birds') snacking. Protect ripening fruit by swaddling it with plastic bird netting. It will keep nibbling rodents (squirrels, chipmunks, mice) at bay,
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Spices, coffee grounds, and garlic need to be re-applied after rain or snow. Happy Gardening.

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Coffee Grounds for Your Garden

I love to go to Starbucks, armed with two large pales and let them fill with coffee grounds. Some of the branches even have pre-packed bags with the brown garden wonder. I don't want to let them do extra work, so I insist to leave the coffee filter paper in the grounds. They are so busy that I don't want to make them extra work. I can easily pick the filters out myself at home.  It doesn't take me even a minute to do this.  During my ride home and for the next couple of days I have a lovely coffee smell in my car.
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Don't Discard Your Coffee Grounds 
Coffee grounds are strewn every morning in millions of compost bins (in the best case), but mostly in garbage cans.  Did you know?  They still contain a lot of valuable ingredients: potassium, nitrogen, phosphorus, tannic acid and antioxidants.  The very same nutrients that are also found in expensive fertilizer products. In the garden, coffee grounds can be used in many ways.  A basic prerequisite for all applications is that it is always well cooled and dry, as moist coffee grounds easily mould.  Place the coffee grounds in an open, wide container and allow it to air dry.

Coffee Grounds Are Perfect Around Hydrangeas, Azaleas, and Evergreens
Cucumber, tomatoes and zucchini love caffeine too.  The phosphorus, nitrogen, and potassium in the coffee ground are supporting pretty much any other plant as well - keep it only away from young sprouts.

• The Nitrogen in the coffee grounds supports healthy growth and reproduction. While native plants are better adapted to their surroundings and oftentimes less affected by nitrogen deficiency, in plants such as vegetable crops, supplemental nitrogen may be required.
• Phosphorus plays a role in photosynthesis, root growth, respiration, energy storage and transfer, cell division, cell enlargement etc. 
• Potassium is one of three primary nutrients required by plants  

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Coffee grounds protect even somewhat against snails
Unlike vegetables, most snails do not like caffeine. The coffee grounds are therefore wonderful as a barrier, which can be spread around the salad.  However, this does not apply to all types of slugs.  But it’s definitely worth a try.
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Coffee grounds scare away wasps
This measure against wasps should only be used outside: If the coffee grounds have dried well, light them on a fireproof base and let them smoke a bit. The smell reminds only remotely of coffee, but the wasps then avoid the garden table.
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Coffee grounds stop cats
No one likes the legacy of cats in the sandpit or basement: What works for most slugs is also true for cats.  Just sprinkle around the sandbox and the cats make a turn around it.
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Coffee grounds improve compost, potting soil and irrigation water
What is good for the plants also helps the compost: coffee grounds on the compost is the best reason why you should not simply dispose of coffee grounds in the trash.
In compost, coffee accelerates rotting, and earthworms like caffeine kick. This also means that leached potting soil can be revived quickly. Mix the potting soil in equal parts with compost and fold in the coffee grounds in small quantities.  Too much coffee in the soil can easily form mould.  For very basic soils and calcareous water, one, two spoonfuls of coffee grounds in the irrigation water can work wonders. It neutralizes the irrigation water and fertilizes the soil.

Coffee is a favorite drink.  What’s leftover is plenty of coffee grounds, which ends up in the garbage quickly.  Coffee grounds are too good to throw away - same for tea leaves.

https://academic.oup.com/jxb/article/56/417/1943/484407
https://www.pthorticulture.com/en/training-center/role-of-potassium-in-plant-culture/
https://www.gardeningknowhow.com/garden-how-to/soil-fertilizers/understanding-nitrogen-requirements-for-plants.htm

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