Results of last fall's experiment....

gardenfanatic2003

16 years ago

Last fall, I covered some of my beds with coffee grounds mixed with chopped leaves, and lightly scratched them into the soil. I wanted to see if this would make a difference in the soil (these particular beds had hard-packed clay) and if the plants would do better this year.

The plants did not do any better, but with the April hard freeze, I'm not sure that it would be fair to assess their performance in relation to the coffee grounds/leaf additions. My sister's plants did worse this year, and she didn't do anything different with her soil.

I couldn't tell any difference in the soil, but one thing that I noticed a HUGE difference in was the number of worms in the soil. It was like wormapalooza! I've never seen that many worms in my soil!

I'm convinced it was the coffee grounds that did it. I had 2 compost piles that I constructed last fall with strictly leaves, coffee grounds, and horse manure. No grass clippings, because we had such a drought, that by the end of summer, there was no grass growing to be mowed. So I had to improvise in order to have some compost this spring. Those compost piles were filled with big fat worms this spring. I don't normally find that many worms in my compost.

All in all, I'm very pleased with the results of my experiment. So I'm going to again mulch my beds with the coffee grounds/chopped leaves mixture this fall. Lots of trips to Starbucks will be in order. I already started this evening, and will probably be doing daily pickups for the next month.

Deanna

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Comments (6)

bpgreen
16 years ago
One thing to be aware of with coffee grounds (especially the "hocky pucks" from Starbucks) is that if they're too thick and they dry out, they can repel water. If you're composting them (it seems to hold true for lasagna composting, as well, as long as the layers aren't too thick) this is less of an issue.

Mixing them with the leaves should help ensure that the hydrophobic conditions won't develop.
sylviatexas1
16 years ago
Yay, Deanna!

Sometimes it does take longer than a season to see improvement in the underlying soil, especially if, as you said, conditions have been stressful.

The fact that you have worms in the compost layer is wonderful:

They'll migrate into the soil & munch their way through it & leave behind worm castings, improving the soil as they worm their way along.
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tclynx
16 years ago
You mentioned dry weather perhaps your compost pile became the safe haven for all the worms in the neighborhood.

Keep it up and keep us posted! I love doing little experiments in the garden.
jugglerguy
16 years ago
I don't drink coffee and I've never gone out looking for coffee grounds to add to my compost or garden. However, I use chopped leaves as mulch in all of my gardens. I chop them in the fall and put them in large compost bins until spring. When the plants start coming up, I spread the leaves as mulch.

I also have tons of worms, but I know they're after my leaves since I don't have any coffee grounds. I know the worms are great for my soil, but they also cause a problem for me. Robins and turkeys (but mostly robins) go in the gardens looking for worms. They fling leaves out of the garden and onto my lawn or my paths. This summer wasn't as bad, but last summer I had to rake or sweep the leaves back almost every day.
Kimmsr
16 years ago
The earthworms are there because of the increase in organic matter in the soil. coffee grounds are organic matter, not a magic elixar. The increase in the population of earthworms was due to the additional organic matter not any particular type of OM.
tclynx
16 years ago
Agreed that it is the organic matter that makes the difference.

However, coffee grounds are nice organic matter since they are small and brown (look like dirt) and give your garden nitrogen. Mixed with leaves, it is a very nice combination.

Results of last fall's experiment....

Comments (6)

bpgreen

sylviatexas1

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