Practice What You Preach !!! (Revisited)

Sunday I visited a local Starbucks for the first time. I asked if they had any used coffee grounds. The young lady said "Sure" and gave me two water proof bags of grounds.

Right on the label it read...GROUNDS FOR YOUR GARDEN...FREE... along with instructions for how to use the grounds as a nitrogen fertilizer or in your compost pile. And a "Thank You" for taking the grounds! I was quite impressed! I suggest going to Starbucks for coffee and grounds, if there is one in your area. They cater to the organic gardener and are eco-friendly. WAY TO GO STARBUCKS!!

I left with 17 pounds of grounds!

So I spent the afternoon building a compost pile. Using the leaves I found the day before, I emptied the bags one at a time, spread them on the ground and pulled out the larger sticks.

Then used my bagging mower to shred them.
 I suggest using a dust mask when doing this.

 

Then spread them out in my compost bin and sprinkled on the grounds with the coffee filters.

Then I sprayed it down good with water. I added a little soil from the garden after every other layer to introduce micro-organisms to break down the leaves. I repeated this process till I used up all the grounds. This job took about 2 hours, but I ended up with a pile that's 4 feet by 4 feet by 3.5 feet high.

 

I plan on building some more smaller piles in 3 feet diameter cylinders made with chicken wire. I don't want to get into a jam and not have enough compost for my beds,ever again.

By the way, I was able to pick up 7 more bags of leaves from my neighbor up the street from me. That is a total of 21 bags so far and I'm sure I'll be getting more.


Soooo......Until next time....... HAPPY GARDENING!