People are being urged to spread their spent coffee grounds outside to help benefit one key area of their garden.
Gardeners urged to spread coffee grounds over 1 area in October(Image: Dominik Spalek via Getty Images)
If you’re looking to use up all of those spent coffee grounds, believe it or not, instead of simply throwing them away, you can use them to power one key garden area – your lawn. After a prolonged, sweltering summer, while it’s been wonderful to enjoy the garden and soak up the sun, many lawns are now looking brown, patchy, and rather worse for wear. The insufficient rainfall has caused damage and encouraged weed growth.
Fortunately, with cooler weather arriving and before winter approaches, there’s still time to restore your grass to its former glory.
Gardening experts suggest that a common kitchen item often discarded can prove remarkably useful – coffee grounds.
Jim and Mary Competti, who possess more than two decades of practical gardening expertise and run This Is My Garden, have observed that coffee grounds can “improve your lawn” during autumn.
Coffee grounds can be raked into your lawn to improve conditions(Image: Stefan Cristian Cioata via Getty Images)
They explained: “Coffee grounds are perfect for raking into lawns to help fertilise the grass and add organic matter to the top layer of the soil.”
Spent grounds are filled with phosphorus, nitrogen, and other trace minerals. These minerals are vital for healthy, green, lush lawns.
“When raked into lawns, the grounds slowly break down, leaching these nutrients into the soil – much like a synthetic fertiliser would be, but without all the chemicals.”
Additionally, coffee grounds benefit earthworms. As these creatures move through the soil, they consume the readily digestible grounds.
In doing so, they produce worm castings while simultaneously aerating the soil.
How to apply coffee grounds to your lawn
There’s no need to stockpile large quantities of used coffee grounds. Simply distribute them on a daily or weekly basis to begin feeding your lawn.
Simply allow the used coffee grounds to cool and dry slightly before application. Scatter them across the lawn, aiming to use roughly a cup per square yard of grass.
Once spread, water the area gently. This will assist the grounds in settling through the thatch and reaching the soil beneath.
Take care to distribute the coffee grounds evenly rather than leaving clumps on the lawn. Alternatively, you can deposit the grounds in several small piles and use a rake to spread them across the desired area.