Coffee in the Garden

Enjoy your morning cup of coffee and let your garden enjoy it too. On warm summer mornings my wife likes to take her early cup of brew and sit outside with the dogs, listening to the birds and basking in the glow of her sunflowers. It's a nice way to welcome the day. On most of those mornings I arise to find the coffee filter and coffee grounds in the kitchen trash. My enjoyment of the coffee is different as I remove the filter and add it to my compost bucket.

Just about everything you use to start your day can become compost if you begin by throwing it all in a kitchen bucket. The filter and grounds are just the first daily addition. If you have eggs in the morning, add the shells. Didn't eat all of your oatmeal? Don't throw it down the drain; add it to the compost pile. If you have fresh fruit in the morning, add the skins, peelings, seeds, and stems to your bucket. Even the morning newspaper and egg carton can be added. Almost anything organic is ripe (pun intended) for composting.

A typical day for my compost pile

Stay away from bones, meat, fat and raw eggs because those might cause animals to forage in your pile. They'll also add a stink factor that isn't present in compost that is primarily plant and vegetable material.

When your kitchen bucket fills, walk it out to your compost pile and toss it on. At some point you'll want to turn over or fluff up your pile and all the new material will be incorporated to the inside. In time it will all decompose and become beautiful, dark compost that you can work into your soil. Your daily breakfasts will help feed your tomatoes and beans and cucumbers too.

I know you're questioning the suggestion about eggshells. It will take awhile, but they'll break down too. The calcium they'll add to the soil will help prevent blossom end rot in tomatoes. The jagged edges of the broken shells will help keep slugs from destroying new seedlings. The white specks can even be useful in seeing how evenly you spread the compost on the soil.

Of course don't stop with breakfast. Add the remnants of your lunch and dinner too. A small bucket under the sink or on the counter can hold moldy bread, salad fixings, watermelon rind, tea bags, and any other organic material you might otherwise throw away. On your compost pile it will all be recycled and will amend your soil, making it much better.

This is something you can do year round. As the season changes to winter, you'll have less and less plant material to compost. The cold will eventually cause your pile to go dormant and maybe even freeze. Keep dumping your kitchen waste, even on the snow-covered pile. The compost will be jumpstarted and already fed with organic material when spring comes and warms everything up.

It's all very easy to do and will help your kitchen trash can from filling up too soon. Fewer full trash cans means fewer plastic trash bags, which means less waste in your city landfill. Sounds like a win-win situation to me. And it all starts with a little coffee for your garden.

Enjoy your morning cup of coffee and let your garden enjoy it too. On warm summer mornings my wife likes to take her early cup of brew and sit outside with the dogs, listening to the birds and basking in the glow of her sunflowers. It's a nice way to welcome the day. On most of those mornings I arise to find the coffee filter and coffee grounds in the kitchen trash. My enjoyment of the coffee is different as I remove the filter and add it to my compost bucket.

Just about everything you use to start your day can become compost if you begin by throwing it all in a kitchen bucket. The filter and grounds are just the first daily addition. If you have eggs in the morning, add the shells. Didn't eat all of your oatmeal? Don't throw it down the drain; add it to the compost pile. If you have fresh fruit in the morning, add the skins, peelings, seeds, and stems to your bucket. Even the morning newspaper and egg carton can be added. Almost anything organic is ripe (pun intended) for composting.

A typical day for my compost pile

Stay away from bones, meat, fat and raw eggs because those might cause animals to forage in your pile. They'll also add a stink factor that isn't present in compost that is primarily plant and vegetable material.

When your kitchen bucket fills, walk it out to your compost pile and toss it on. At some point you'll want to turn over or fluff up your pile and all the new material will be incorporated to the inside. In time it will all decompose and become beautiful, dark compost that you can work into your soil. Your daily breakfasts will help feed your tomatoes and beans and cucumbers too.

I know you're questioning the suggestion about eggshells. It will take awhile, but they'll break down too. The calcium they'll add to the soil will help prevent blossom end rot in tomatoes. The jagged edges of the broken shells will help keep slugs from destroying new seedlings. The white specks can even be useful in seeing how evenly you spread the compost on the soil.

Of course don't stop with breakfast. Add the remnants of your lunch and dinner too. A small bucket under the sink or on the counter can hold moldy bread, salad fixings, watermelon rind, tea bags, and any other organic material you might otherwise throw away. On your compost pile it will all be recycled and will amend your soil, making it much better.

This is something you can do year round. As the season changes to winter, you'll have less and less plant material to compost. The cold will eventually cause your pile to go dormant and maybe even freeze. Keep dumping your kitchen waste, even on the snow-covered pile. The compost will be jumpstarted and already fed with organic material when spring comes and warms everything up.

It's all very easy to do and will help your kitchen trash can from filling up too soon. Fewer full trash cans means fewer plastic trash bags, which means less waste in your city landfill. Sounds like a win-win situation to me. And it all starts with a little coffee for your garden.