Coffee grounds

[toastofthetown]

I'm quite new to gardening, this might be a basic question, but how can I best use coffee grounds in the garden. Our knock box collects around 500ml ground every 3/4 days and I believe that roses like coffee grounds, but I don't really know much else. Do I just sprinkle them over the plants or is there a more sophisticated method? Which kinds of plants like coffee grounds? And how much is too much to use, I don't want to kill the plants with coffee.

I'd add it to compost with other things (eg grass cuttings, veg scraps and wet brown cardboard) and let it rot down, it has lot of good stuff in but may well just go mouldy if you sprinkle it on soil. Also it may still have a lot of caffeine which isn't great for plants either.

Some people recommend coffee grounds to deter slugs.

If you Google there will be loads of articles but I read it was not really good for plants, so I would take care.

We sprinkle coffee grounds and used tea leaves on the soil. It helps deter next door's cat from using our garden as a toilet.

I have used (sparingly) some of ours to sprinkle around a sickly holly shrub from the bargain section at the GC. It is now absolutely thriving and full of dense, glossy leaves.

It also got other TLC but I think the coffee helped a bit as hollies like acidic soil. Other plants that might benefit from a little sprinkling include camelias, japanese anemones, magnolias, acers, heather, rhododendrons, lilacs.

Just don't go overboard, because of the caffeine which isn't great. I'd be tempted to use about only 2-3 spent pucks, broken up and sprinkled on the soil (but not touching the stem) up to twice a year - per plant.

The rest could go into a compost heap (as pp suggested).