apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

When I took a gardening course, the teacher routinely suggested that we should all be throwing our used coffee grinds out onto the lawn. Increases the organic matter in the soil.

You can also dry the eggshells by just rinsing and putting them out in the sun. If you don't have a food processor, put them in a bag and bash them with a rolling pin.

Lowering pH means making it more acidic. You might have wanted to say raising pH levels (=less acidic).

Just saw that - thanks pomuk!

These are great ideas! Though I do think it's a bit of defeating the purpose to use extra energy by using your oven to dry out the eggshells. The idea of leaving them in the sun to dry is a perfect solution!

although, if you are going to add the eggshells to your plants, where you will be watering them, perhaps they don't need to be perfectly dry in the first place...

It's easier to pulverize them into powder when they're dry. Otherwise, you get paste or chunks that don't do much other than just sit in your soil.

You can also use the water left over from making hard boiled eggs, because the calcium from the shells leaches into the water. (Just don't forget to let the water cool down before putting it on your plants!)

Here's another good tip for making herbal tea for your plants from yougrowgirl.com (although may be a little more labour intensive for apartment dwellers?)

http://www.yougrowgirl.com/thedirt/2006/05/08/plant-shall-eat-plant/

We routinely sprinkle coffee grounds onto our houseplants, with good effect. But now that we have a little garden and are composting, I'm wondering: how many coffee grounds are too many? We drink so much coffee that I fear the plants might get a bit, er, jittery.

Same here, we drink a LOT of coffee, and all the grounds go into the compost. How much is too much?

Two more safer-than-chemical gardening tricks:
The chemical weed killer "Round up" is just a modern home-use version of Agent Orange. It's not safe, it's horrible for the home user and the water table, and really unneeded.
To kill weeds in the sidewalk cracks or lawn:
1- Boiling water. Just boil up a pot and go out and pour it on the weeds. It will kill them just fine and more safely (wear closed-toe shoes and pants when doing this- the hot water will spatter).
2- Beach sand. If you have a brick patio, do what my grandmother did. Go to the beach, take home a bucket of sand and sweep it into the weed-filled cracks, then water. The salt in the sand will kill off the weeds, and the sand will refill the spaces the weeds are growing through. Yes, there will be some salinization of the soil, so don't do this more than once a season. But it's less toxic than chemicals, and if you ever wish to pull up the stones, a good long soak will wash the salt away.
Also, to keep the weeds down, keep a jar of grass seed/mulch combo on hand to sprinkle on any bare spots left by weeding the lawn, and try a hardy low-growing ground cover (baby tear moss in shady areas, woolly thyme in sunny spots) to preempt weeds between stepping stones and less formal patio bricks.

Also with the eggs, we often plant seedlings in eggshells to prep for planting in the ground. You have to break the egg nearer the top so you get a good-sized cup. When it's time to plant the plant in the ground, just break the shell off.

My grandmother used to put eggshells in her watering can. When I was a little kid, I used to think it was funny ... now I know why!

I'm also curious about the coffee grounds--should I ask one of the local Starbucks to save grounds (they will) or will it just be too much for the plants?

Also this weekend, I followed in the footsteps of a friend and collected dry bat guano from underneath the bridge of our dry riverbed. Not smelly until you make it into a tea for the plants! Easy and free!

Wow - bat guano!

The question of 'how much is too much' is a good one. How about this - I will see if I can get a good answer for everyone, and if I do I'll post it next week.

Even though we get a huge caffeine jolt from coffee, I have been told it is fairly weak as a plant fertilizer. I don't think you have to worry too much about your plants getting the jitters :)

I also read somewhere that although raw beans have a high acid level, that they become closer to neutral in pH once they are brewed - same with composted grounds. And if you have worms in your garden they will also help in breaking down your grounds and lowering their level of acidity.

So far I haven't had outside plants complain with the 1/3" - 1/2" layer I will put down. But results will always vary I'm sure depending on the plant and preexisting soil conditions.

Stay tuned ~

Coffee grounds are also a great way to keep cats out of your flower beds!!

I worked at a coffee shop for a while and there was someone there who grew plants in almost 100% coffee ground compost that he's take home from the shop each day, and the plants seemed thrilled. He'd bring plants back to the shop sometimes, including the biggest sunflower I've ever seen. Though maybe best to avoid with something that is specifically an alkaline soil plant (cactus and succulents).

My Dad has a small garden behind his house for growing vegetables, tomatoes, zucchini, squash, etc. He uses coffee grounds and the remains of fresh fish he gets at the grocery.

This may sound gross but he works the fish heads into the dirt in his small garden. 3 feet x 30 feet. His tomato plants grow as tall or taller than me in a matter of weeks and I am almost 6 feet tall. I have tried it at home as well and it works.
There is no smell either!

OMG! GREAT IDEAS!!!! My Grandmother threw coffee grinds and eggshells into her WAY lush garden and I didn't know why...

She has long since passed over, I am older, and unfortunately, I never asked her. Thank you, 1000x, for all your tips and the beautiful memories.

So which do I use? The eggshells, the coffee grinds, or both? How do I know which is more appropriate for the plant based on the soil? Do I need to test the soil?
I only have a few house simple house plants in as well as an orchid, christmas cactus, & an african violet.

An alternative to boiling water (great idea btw!) is to use some apple cider vinegar in a spray bottle. Works great on dandelions. Kills the roots and everything. Also, it doesn't leave any chemical residue, so if you decide to start eating your dandelions, you don't have to worry! Works on grass and just about anything else that doesn't have a hard stem, too. To be effective, you have to use it on a dry, sunny day. Works best if it hasn't rained in a couple of days and the plants are really thirsty. If you have a really big dandelion, use a stick or something to poke a hole in the soil as close to the root as you can and pour some vinegar down that.

Actually, for all the grief Starbucks takes as all that is evil about "The Man", they do save their coffee grinds, and they're yours for the asking (at least they are, here in the SF Bay Area. I haven't confirmed this anywhere else in our outside of the US).

Wonderful tips! My "brown thumb" may be curable yet!