Tag: Soil

How to use coffee grounds to enhance your garden

 

If you start each day with a cup of joe, then you know how magical coffee beans can be. What you might not know is that coffee grounds also offer a host of benefits for your garden, from providing much-needed minerals to helping with soil structure and deterring pests.

But before you start serving up fresh java to your beloved plants, it’s important to understand all of the intricacies involved—including why it works, how to administer the grounds, and some common mistakes to avoid. Here, we spoke to experts about how your cherished morning cup can perk up your plants.

Meet Our Expert

  • Elizabeth Jones, seed librarian at the Jefferson Public Library
  • Shane Brill, campus garden director at Washington College
  • Juliet Howe, horticulturist and the founder of Twigs Design

Plants That Thrive with Added Coffee

“Plants that thrive in more acidic soil can benefit from freshly brewed coffee grounds,” says Elizabeth Jones, a seed librarian at the Jefferson Public Library. “Some of these include blueberries, tomatoes, carrots, fennel, beans, beets, aster, and blue and pink hydrangeas.”

Maricel Gentile, the renowned chef and ingredient expert who owns Maricel’s Kitchen, has seen success with leafy green and fruiting plants. “Tomatoes like nitrogen early in the season, and the coffee seems to give them a boost,” she says. “My peppers, lettuce, spinach, and carrots also seem to do well.”

However, avoid adding fresh coffee grounds to plants that prefer alkaline soil. “Some examples include lavender, geraniums, snapdragons, rosemary, and most of the Mediterranean herbs,” says Howe.

Using Coffee Grounds in Compost

Coffee grounds can be a great compost ingredient. Shane Brill, the campus garden director at Washington College, collects the grounds and mixes them with other organic materials for compost, balancing nitrogen-rich items like coffee with carbon-rich materials like dried leaves or straw.

“Layer the coffee grounds in your compost pile or bin, turning the mixture occasionally to keep it aerated,” he says. “It’s important to avoid overusing coffee grounds in the compost—they should not exceed one-fifth of the total volume. Be sure to turn the pile once a week and monitor moisture levels, keeping the pile damp but not soggy. The finished compost will be ready in about three to six months.”

Using Coffee Grounds as a Targeted Soil Amendment

Coffee grounds can be scattered lightly around plants to help suppress weeds and deter slugs, according to Brill. “It feeds soil microbes that can enrich the structure and improve drainage,” he says. “But rather than viewing coffee grounds as a standalone fertilizer, we can use it thoughtfully as a targeted soil amendment.”

Using Coffee Grounds for Fertilizer

Dried coffee grounds: Gentile dries used coffee grounds on a tray in the sun, then sprinkles them directly into her raised beds and containers as fertilizer. “Wet coffee grounds clump together and crust up, and don’t let the nutrients seep out,” she says.

Gentile lightly scatters the grounds around the base of her plants but avoids the stems. “I gently work the grounds into the soil, just using my fingers to lightly rake them into the top inch or so,” she says. “Garden gloves are very handy, and I always water to help the nutrients seep into the soil. I like to think I’m giving my plants a nice drink of coffee.”

Liquid fertilizer: You might also choose to toss your morning coffee grounds into a half-gallon bucket of water. “Let this sit overnight and drain, then this water is ready to fertilize your garden,” says Juliet Howe, horticulturist and the founder of Twigs Design.

Mixed in potting soil: You can also mix grounds directly with soil, says How. “Simply mix 10 parts potting soil with one part coffee grounds for a built-in boost to your potting soil.”

Why pH Matters

Soil is made up of various minerals, water, gases, organic matter, and microorganisms. All of these factors play a role in pH—a metric that determines how acidic or alkaline your soil is. pH can impact plant growth and can vary widely across different areas of the country—or even in different sections of your garden.

Therefore, it’s important to test your soil’s pH every few years so you know exactly what you’re working with. Before you start growing, you should also learn what type of pH level each plant prefers.

So, what does pH have to do with coffee? Fresh coffee grounds are acidic, and conventional wisdom says that they can very slightly lower the soil’s pH level. Brewed coffee grounds, meanwhile, are nearly neutral, notes Jones.

“For plants that are very sensitive to acidity, coffee grounds aren’t your best choice,” she says. “However, repeated heavy application may slightly lower soil pH over time.”

Mistakes to Avoid

  • Fertilizing too frequently. Too much fertilizer can’t be absorbed by the soil. “It evaporates, leaving salts behind,” Howe says. “This high sodium content can damage roots, causing brown or yellow leaves.”
  • Not testing your soil. Experts recommend pH testing every three years or so to understand what nutrients you might need.
  • Over-caffeinating your plants. “Used coffee grounds are preferred over fresh ones,” advises Jones. “They’re less acidic, and they won’t shock plants with excessive caffeine content.”
  • Applying too closely. Adding coffee grounds too close to the root or stem may burn the plants, according to Jones. You also want to avoid sprinkling the coffee directly on the top of the plant.
  • Harming young plants. “Always be mindful of applying coffee to very young plants or seedlings, as it may stress their delicate roots,” says Brill.

Source:   Martha Stewart©

Read more about coffee grounds in the garden here:

Coffee grounds in gardening – the hacks that work and the ones that don’t – TUTORING YOU

Improving your Clay Garden Soil

There’s no doubt about it; working in heavy clay soil is a pain in the back. It sticks to your shoes (and tools) and can be more challenging than gardening in sandier soil. However, despite all the hard work, clay soil has its benefits. Namely, it can host life-giving plant nutrients and retain moisture better than other soil types. With some soil amendments, you can turn your sticky clay into the humus-rich, fertile goodness your plants will thank you for.

Amending Clay Soil

There’s a notion that adding sand to heavy clay soil will help lighten it, but that’s a myth. In fact, 99 percent of the time, it turns your ground into cement. Soil treated this way becomes so tough that worms can’t live in it.

Instead, reach for organic matter, such as compost, leaf mold, and well-rotted manure. Organic matter is the best way to amend clay soil: It lightens the soil texture, discourages compaction, adds nutrients, improves drainage and aeration, moderates soil temperature, and provides pore space, essential to plant growth.

Amending your soil takes time and patience but rewards you many times over in the end. The first step should be to add as much organic matter as possible and mix it deeply into your soil. Before you start, have a soil test done. That way, you can incorporate lime, phosphorus, or amendments necessary while tilling in the organic matter. If you’re creating a new bed, this will be much easier.

Start the process by using a tiller to loosen the existing soil (if it is a large area) or a spade (if it is a more manageable size). Next, spread about 2 inches of compost on top of the tilled soil and work that in. Repeat the process two more times. Remember to only work in your clay soil if it is relatively dry. Working or walking on wet clay soil seriously damages the structure you are trying to improve.

Working around existing plants will take more time and caution. Autumn is a great time to do this because the weather is generally drier than in the springtime, and the cooler temperatures are more pleasant to work in. You can even make it an annual part of putting the garden to bed for winter.

Spread a few inches of compost over the ground between the plants and use a narrow spade to turn the compost into the soil. Repeat that at least once more and plan to make that part of your routine. Always work so that you’re walking backward and away from your freshly turned soil.

Over time, regular applications of compost, manure, and other organic matter will improve your soil’s structure, tilth, and overall health.

One last word on gardening in clay soil: Choose plants naturally adapted to growing in clay. It’s always better to work with what you have than to try and change it entirely. Happily, for those of us that garden with heavy clay soil, there is an abundance of beautiful plants to choose from.

Adding sand to your garden soil

If sand is added to garden soil in small amounts, it will make hardly any difference to the overall mixture. Ideally, the soil should have 50% pore space, and in clay soil, the pore spaces are tiny. Sandy soil, on the other hand, has larger pore spaces.

Mixing the sandy soil and clay soil causes the larger spaces of the sand to be compacted and filled in with the minute particles of clay, and the result is dense, heavier soil with a smaller pore space than either of the materials.

For the soil to take on the properties of sand, the ratio of the two materials would need to be close to 50:50. This would be impractical and costly in many cases. Still, it is an excellent way to make your garden soil finer and lighter if you have a small garden space or patch of soil.

Sources: http://www.bhg.com; simplifygardening.com

What To Do if You Have Clay Garden Soil

If you have clay soil in your garden, you may have lost all hope of baskets full of lush vegetables and bouquets of fragrant flowers. But don’t give up so fast! Clay soil isn’t perfect, but it’s not all bad either, and it most definitely can be improved. Here’s how to take clay soil and turn it into soil that you and your plants will love.

How To Make Clay Soil Better

One good thing about clay soil is that it can be improved upon. With patience and effort, you can change the profile of your clay soil and make it easier to work with and more likely to yield the results you desire. Here’s how to improve your soil:

  • Break it up. Cut through the dense profile of clay soil with soil amendments. “Slowly adding decomposable, coarse organic matter, ” says Sam Schmitz, horticulturist with Ball Horticulture, “such as pine bark chips, and other, larger inorganic particles, such as coarse sand, can help break up the clay, keep the particles separated, and create more open pore space in the soil.” Just make sure these amendments are tilled into the soil, so they become well-incorporated throughout the clay profile.
  • Try raised beds. Gardening with raised beds, says horticulturist and garden educator Donna Balzer, will help drainage and avoid standing water on top of your plantings. “Raised planting beds mean less foot traffic and compaction on clay soils,” Balzer says, “and shifts the plant roots above the sitting water.”
  • Top it off. Balzer recommends sprinkling gypsum on the soil surface. “It replaces sodium with plant-friendly calcium and makes the neutral clay soil more workable,” she says. She also advises top-dressing clay soils with a light layer of straw, fine bark or compost in the fall, to protect against surface crusting. You can buy gypsum online and at garden stores.
  • Dig down deep. To help with drainage issues, Schmitz recommends digging through the clay layer into the soils below. “This can help alleviate any drainage concerns by opening up the flow of water through the soil profile.” If the density issue is severe, add calcined clay pellets along with the other amendments. “They will eventually break down,” he says, “but that typically takes several seasons. Hopefully, by that time, any issues with the soil will have been resolved.”

What Not to Do with Clay Soil

Clay soil can be pretty unforgiving. Make sure you avoid these common mistakes:

  • The wrong additives. “Many people make the mistake of adding compost and sand to clay soils,” says Schmitz. “Adding a very fine compost and the wrong type of sand can actually make things worse.” Mix the small particles of clay with the other small particles of compost and sand and, according to Schmitz, “what you end up with is basically mortar mix. Mix it together, compact it and you can build a house!”
  • Repeated tilling. Tilling the soil over and over again at the same depth is not productive. “As the tiller blades cut through the soil, they create a smooth compacted layer at the bottom of the till depth,” says Schmitz. “While the upper surface may be amenable to plant growth, the compacted layer underneath can cause major problems through the season.” Instead, Schmitz says to use a pitchfork to break up the compacted layer and allow excess moisture a way out.
  • Treading heavily. “Soils containing clay are super sensitive to traffic,” says Balzer. “If you put on your gumboots and walk all over your amended clay soils you will pack them down, squishing out the air.” She says that gardeners should avoid walking across any clay-y soil, adding that even a perfect loam with 30 percent clay will be flattened by foot traffic.

How To Maintain Clay Soil

Clay soil doesn’t like to be ignored. Leave it alone for a season or two and you’ll have a hard time changing course in your garden, Schmitz explains. “My suggestion would be to slowly change the soil consistency over time,” he says. “Soil tests can go a long way in telling you if you are headed in the right direction. By slowly working the clay season after season and adding in the proper amendments, you can turn your garden from a headache into a haven. Patience and persistence are the keys to success with clay soils.”

In his own garden, Schmitz says it took five years of tilling and amending clay soils before the first productive beds sprang up. “Considering that it probably took hundreds of years for the clay layer and soils to form on their own, or one round of major construction to compact them to near the point of no return, a five-year commitment to turn them back around isn’t all that bad,” Schmitz says.

By Elizabeth Heath for familyhandyman.com©