It is best to compost coffee grounds and tea leaves. The effect of direct use in the garden can be too harsh, depending upon how much one puts down near a plant.

Lorna

The FAQs have good info on composting coffee grounds, and I and many others use them successfully directly in the garden. They are rich in nitrogen and I like to think of them as a gentle, organic fertilizer and soil amendment. They are wonderful for greening up lawns and I like to use them to topdress plants that I grow for foliage, like hostas, heucheras, and lettuce.

The only problem I have ever heard of anyone having from using them directly is that if you apply them too thickly, they can crust over and repel water, and if you apply them too often, they could induce too lush growth. I haven't had either of these problems myself. I suppose that you shouldn't apply them too late in the growing season, either.

Try them and see how they work for you. Good luck!

Coffee grounds can be composted or appled directly to your soil. However, the nutrients in the compost are better utilized in the compost pile than if the coffee grounds were used as a mulch, although it they are mixed into the soil they may provide as much of the nutrients to the soil as if composted.
People that have little to no organic matter in their soil have seen fairly spectacular results by just putting coffee grounds on their soil as a mulch, but simply cannot make the connection to the need to add sufficient quantities of organic matter to their soil, things such as coffee grounds regularly.

No, they don't have to be composted - just don't put them too near the base of the plant, and scratch them into the soil.

Deanna

Do whatever is easiest since they are great either way. As noted, coffee grounds can crust over if used too thickly so if you put them directly into the garden, spread them around.