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jmckemie_gw

Coffee Grounds and Egg Shells

jmckemie
13 years ago

I have a plethora of coffee grounds and egg shells, but do not really compost...though I hope to, eventually. My gardern includes a lot of rose of sharons, hydrangeas, butterfly bushes, passion vines, sages and basils, hostas, bee balms and assorted other odds and ends...my question is this...is there some use I can make of the coffee grounds and egg shells? Can I spread them without formally composting them?

Thanks for any tips!

Jen

Comments (12)

  • rosecats
    13 years ago

    Yep, you can! Both can help deter slugs & snails, if they're a problem for you. Just sprinkle them on the surface. I recently saw on a garden website - maybe Sunset? - that you can use coffee grounds as up to 1/3 of your total soil amendment. And, if you have roses, they love coffee grounds.

  • gtippitt
    13 years ago

    The coffee grounds make nice smelling mulch. The egg shells won't break down very fast unless you crush them. Whether you put them in a compost bin or scatter them as mulch, the egg shells will stay around for a long time if you leave them as halves.

    I've read that crushed egg shells scattered around plants will help deter slugs, but I haven't tried it myself.

    I have 3 large empty folger's coffee cans by my kitchen sink. I use one for used coffee grounds, one for egg shells, and one for fruit peels and cores. Whenever the one with coffee grounds get full, I take it outside and scatter it as mulch around one of my plants. I have a short piece of wood that I use like a pestle to crush up the egg shells in their can. It takes forever to fill up the can with crushed shells, which I scatter on my compost heap. The fruit peel can gets carried to the compost heap when it fills up. Like you, I have mostly coffee grounds and egg shells.

  • kentstar
    13 years ago

    Spread away the ucgs! Wonderful stuff it is and worms LOVE them! The egg shells I crush in my hands as I dump them in my empty coffee cans, real easy and done.

  • Kimmsr
    13 years ago

    Earthworms love almost any form of organic mattter and where they really love coffee grounds is where there is too little organic matter in the soil. Egg shells can be spread over the gardens soil, if the are crushed and keep in mind that they will be there for a very long time. coffee grounds can be spread over the garden soil also and they will "disappear", be digested, much quicker than would the egg shells. Small pieces of egg shell can be a deterent to wee buggers such as slugs.

  • lisascenic Urban Gardener, Oakland CA
    13 years ago

    My slugs scoff at the eggshells I scatter on the garden.

    Here is a link that might be useful: my approach

  • jolj
    13 years ago

    I use egg shells & coffee/tea grounds.
    Sometimes I crush the shells, some times I do not.

  • nancyjeanmc
    13 years ago

    Compost Breakfast! What ... no toast?

  • ctnchpr
    13 years ago

    During the warm months, I carry my kitchen scraps/UCG/egg shells to my leaf mold pile. But during Winter, I just dump them off the deck underneath the bird feeders. (I live 1/4 mile into the woods, there are no neighbors to complain.) By Spring, the layers of ks/UCG/es/sunflower hulls/bird droppings have earthworms in them larger than small snakes. I use them to top dress an Elephant Ear bed by my mailbox on our country highway. I have people stop me on the highway and corner me at the country store, wanting to know how I grow the EE's so large. I tell them "Give them lots of water, lots of water". They shouldn't expect me to give away all my secrets.

    {{gwi:307368}}

  • cali1023
    13 years ago

    That picture is adorable!

  • nancyjeanmc
    13 years ago

    Wow! Amazingly beautiful. Gorgeous.
    Elephant ear is nice, too.
    ;-)

  • jolj
    13 years ago

    Love the Photo, reminds me of my daughter at 5 or so, she is 20 now & in her 3 year at CC.The leaf looks like
    Colocasia gigantea, Thailand Giant Strain, Zone 8-10,108 tall from www.plantdelights.com
    Compost is great for getting the most out of a plant.

  • ctnchpr
    13 years ago

    Thanks, folks!

    jolj, The leaf is from an Alocasia macrorrhiza (upright elephant ear). I have a Thai giant pup that's being overwintered as a house plant. I can't wait to see what the compost & leaf mold will do for it next year!!