After a busy morning in the garden, there’s nothing quite like sitting down with your favourite beverage. But there’s plenty you can do with tea and coffee in the garden besides simply drinking it.
If you take the time to make a pot of fresh coffee (rather than instant), you’ll have a ready supply of coffee grounds. These nutrient-rich leftovers contain several minerals including nitrogen, magnesium, calcium, potassium and there are lots of ways you can use them in the garden.
Here are some ways coffee can be used in the garden:
Combat slugs and snails
If you’re looking for a natural way to keep slugs and snails away from your plants, coffee grounds are a great weapon to include in your arsenal. Simply put a circle of the grounds around the plants you want to protect. Slugs and snails will be put off by the rough texture and won’t want to cross over the grounds to reach your plants. Caffeine is also toxic to slugs and snails – another reason why they will be reluctant to come near your coffee grounds.
Improve your compost
Throw leftover coffee grounds into your compost bin. As they are rich in nitrogen, this will help improve the quality of your compost.
Add to your soil
You can simply sprinkle coffee grounds onto your soil to boost the nitrogen content.
Create a liquid fertiliser
Take two cups of leftover coffee grounds and add them to five gallons of water. Leave to steep for a few hours and you’ll have a free and natural fertiliser for your garden.
More of a tea drinker? Don’t worry; we’ve got tips for using tea in the garden too:
A boost for compost
Just like coffee grounds, used teabags can be added to your compost bin or directly to soil to boost the nutrient content. You don’t even need to open the bag first as it will decompose just like other waste that you add to your compost bin. Just be sure to remove any tags that are attached to the teabags first.
Treat mild sunburn
If you’ve caught the sun while gardening and have a painful spot of sunburn, place a used cooled wet teabag on the area and it will help soothe the sunburn. If you have sunburn over a larger area, you can add teabags to your bath to create a soothing soak.
Repel pests
Some gardeners claim that weak tea can help repel pests. Decant into a spray bottle and use to spray the leaves of your plants.
Feed your roses
Teabags can be used to create a natural fertiliser for your plants. Roses in particular are said to benefit from the nutrients found in a used teabag.
So, there you go, next time you’re enjoying a well-earned coffee or tea break in your garden, save the grounds or the teabag and see whether they can give your garden a boost.
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