Coffee Grounds & Sawdust - A Perfect Match?

In our area [within a reasonable distance] there are a number of coffee shops that are happy to collect their coffee grounds for people to take for their gardens.

I've always happily just sprinkled it on top of the garden since it's a rather large area and it's never been too much to dispense.

Sometimes I have liberally sprinkled it around garden beds that I've just planted out, or are getting ready to have seeds sprout so as to deter snails and slugs.

I recently watched a short video online where a man has been getting wheelie bins full and then uses a cement mixer to combine equal parts of saw dust with the coffee grounds. By doing this he said he negates the acidity of the grounds and says he has a perfect compost mix for his garden.

Of course one could simply mix it by hand in a wheel barrow.

A quick search turned this up: "sawdust can be added to the compost pile. However, compost has a very high amount of carbon, so if you add sawdust, add nitrogen". Of course coffee grounds are high in potassium and nitrogen, so it certainly sounds like a great match.

So, I guess we can all enjoy our cuppas a bit more now knowing we are simply doing our bit for the garden (:

Comments

  • Karyn Pennington
    Karyn Pennington Posts: 71 ✭✭✭

    I collect coffee grounds from the building's cafeteria where I work and my husband's friend does a lot of woodwork. I just texted my husband to ask his friend if we could have his shavings/sawdust for the garden. I often worry that the compost pile is getting too many coffee grounds, especially when I run out of fall leaves to add. Thanks for the inspiration. (I personally will have to find other ways to help the garden -- not a coffee drinker -- but I do have healthy urine LOL)

  • Melody Castello
    Melody Castello Posts: 13 ✭✭✭

    Interesting. Will have to see if I can source these ingredients and give this a try.

  • RICHARD
    RICHARD Posts: 22 ✭✭✭

    One of my friends used to gather wood shavings to add to the stall residue after mucking out the horse barn. I hadn't considered coffee grounds to add to sawdust. It's a great idea, one that I will be passing on. Thank you.

  • dimck421
    dimck421 Posts: 203 ✭✭✭

    @RICHARD While I have not yet heard of the sawdust/coffee grounds combo, I would sure think the combo of those two, plus your horses' contribution would be gold! I think I will try it with goat donations. The animal manure adds time to the wait period to use the compost, but, wow, it has to be a winner!


    @Alison thank you for sharing!

  • EarlKelly
    EarlKelly Posts: 230 ✭✭✭

    Hadn’t heard of that combo. Going to go visit my local dunkin donuts and see if I can get some free coffee grounds to try this. Being a part time woodworker have plenty of sawdust. Thanks for the tip.

  • judsoncarroll4
    judsoncarroll4 Posts: 5,490 admin

    Great for growing mushrooms too -- especially oyster!

  • Chris A.
    Chris A. Posts: 27 ✭✭✭

    To speed up the compost time when adding animal manure to the shavings/sawdust/coffee ground mix, you can layer the ingredients and water the layers generously and then cover with a tarp. It makes the composting go faster and the worms get in there and help out as well. You end up with some gorgeous soil that is awesome for your garden. I have done this with horse, goat, rabbit and pig manure.

    If you are not caring about time, just layer in the garden and never till it, but keep it watered. Each year at planting time you just make a hole down to the soil and plant whatever you want to plant and meanwhile the garden just keeps composting from the ground up. I did this for many years as I had such hard clay soil I couldn't get a carrot to grow past two inches and onions just sat on top and never gained any size. With the garden always in a state of composting things started growing great and now I have beautiful soil.

  • Alison
    Alison Posts: 179 ✭✭✭

    Worms LOVE coffee grounds. You will find that by using them it adds to worm activity both in the garden and if you add coffee grounds straight to your worm bin.

    If you've tried coffee grounds, or the combination of coffee grounds and sawdust I'd love to hear some feedback.

    As for hard clay soils, my block was just as bad. I've composted straight on top also as I had the same problem of not being able to grow a thing. In some parts I've got great depth for my topsoil, but that is also in most part to using the back to eden garden method with huge amounts of woodchip.

    🥕🍒🥦

  • Carlos Clavell
    Carlos Clavell Posts: 10 ✭✭✭

    I've found the post on the coffee grounds and saw dust very informative. I will definitely try the saw dust to the Urban Worm Bag for enhancing the quality of the compost. This is my second attempt with running an red wrigglers worm compost and trying it within a more controlled environment indoor.

  • Alison
    Alison Posts: 179 ✭✭✭

    That's great. Let us know how you go. I found that my worms LOVED banana peels.

  • Jannajo
    Jannajo Posts: 173 ✭✭✭

    Banana peels? That's a gd one! I never used them (because of the pesticide, if not organic). Will do! & I love that coffee-sawdust combo, thanks for that!