My wife recycles coffee grounds and the tea in used bags too
@JamesHxstatic (29413)
Eugene, Oregon
November 5, 2015 7:37pm CST
I read a post by alina @swisshart asking about uses for used tea bags. I have not tried them on my eyes yet, but may.
My wife, Anne, takes our used tea bags and the coffee from our filters, removes the contents and collects the tea and coffee grounds in a yogurt bucket. When it gets full, she throws it out into the garden. Our soil consists of some fairly good dirt with some very hard clay about four inches down.
It turns out that these tea and coffee grounds are excellent soil amendments, helping break up that clay and make gardening a viable possibility.
Link to alina@swisshart post: http://www.mylot.com/post/2850949/do-you-throw-away-tea-bags
23 people like this
20 responses
@JamesHxstatic (29413)
• Eugene, Oregon
6 Nov 15
Glad to hear that Anna. We have several plants that like acid soil.
1 person likes this
@GardenGerty (160721)
• United States
6 Nov 15
My grandmother had a certain flower bed where she threw her coffee and tea leaves. There were three stocked ponds on the property and the place we dug worms or night crawlers to fish with were where the tea and coffee grounds were in the soil. It seems to be very hospitable to the creatures. We just throw them in our compost with everything else.
4 people like this
@JamesHxstatic (29413)
• Eugene, Oregon
6 Nov 15
We try not to send anymore garbage "away" then we have to.
5 people like this
@youless (112511)
• Guangzhou, China
6 Nov 15
In fact I had a discussion here to ask people how to deal with the coffee grounds. I searched it via the net and people say you can use it to make a pillow, or wash your hair, or even use it to remove the bad smelling. I did read an interesting article and some people use it to plant the mushrooms. That's so cool! So it is alright for you to put the coffee grounds in the garden as the fertilizer. So I keep the coffee grounds and when they are full, I may go to the park and throw them there. Hopefully the plants will grow better after that.
3 people like this
@JamesHxstatic (29413)
• Eugene, Oregon
6 Nov 15
I hope that throwing grounds in the park is a legal thing to do. It will help the plants.
2 people like this
@youless (112511)
• Guangzhou, China
5 Nov 17
@galaxy2017 If you have plants at home, it is better. Or it seems a little weird to go to the park to do so although it seems be OK.
@galaxy2017 (179)
•
5 Nov 17
go to the park and throw them there?
If it is throwing trash carelessly?
2 people like this
@wetnosedogs (1533)
• United States
6 Nov 15
Yes, coffee grounds work great in the soil I don't drink that much tea.
2 people like this
@JamesHxstatic (29413)
• Eugene, Oregon
6 Nov 15
I was surprised to learn about coffee grounds and how they work with the soil.
2 people like this
@TheHorse (219080)
• Walnut Creek, California
6 Nov 15
I make "cowboy coffee" with tired old grounds from the morning. I usually add milk, as the second round of coffee can be pretty weak. Then I take the grounds (unless I'm feeling lazy and dump them) and put them on my garden plants.
2 people like this
@JamesHxstatic (29413)
• Eugene, Oregon
6 Nov 15
Good idea with the grounds. I only drink fresh coffee and like it strong and black.
@JamesHxstatic (29413)
• Eugene, Oregon
6 Nov 15
I certainly did. She has many good ideas.
1 person likes this
@AbbyGreenhill (45494)
• United States
6 Nov 15
A lot of people do that - we don't have soil in our garden we have mushroom mulch and I don't think it needs any additives.
1 person likes this
@Hatley (163776)
• Garden Grove, California
6 Nov 15
yes we did that o ne year and ourplants were better than ever then stupiodly we sold that hourse when the market was still low then it rose really ghigyh and what we got was notr enought to buyy a house in So uthern california again as the p rice had zi pped upl we should have refi nanced ans stayed right there. livingi n a p ts is not as wonderf ul a your own ho me.to think we only had 1000 left on that house and i love tat huse an my big garden and the fruit treews.
1 person likes this
@AbbyGreenhill (45494)
• United States
7 Nov 15
@Hatley The home prices in that state are crazy. I wouldn't live there, couldn't aford to.
@JamesHxstatic (29413)
• Eugene, Oregon
6 Nov 15
I think that she does use some in her rose garden as well.
1 person likes this
@jillybean1222 (6407)
•
6 Nov 15
I should remember this as much as i use coffee. for a short while, i tried composting, but was not good about using it. i should just go dump the grounds in my garden while it is resting between seasons
1 person likes this
@JamesHxstatic (29413)
• Eugene, Oregon
6 Nov 15
It will help the soil for sure and cut back on the garbage we send "away," though there is no away, really.
@ElizabethWallace (12074)
• United States
6 Nov 15
I used to subscribe to an Organic Gardening magazine printed by Rodale Press years ago. I learned about this type of soil amendment. I never did them, but that was because I do not drink coffee or tea. But, I do know that they are excellent in the garden.
1 person likes this
@Hatley (163776)
• Garden Grove, California
6 Nov 15
I did too then stopped when we sold the house and ended up living in ap ts it was a stupid sale as at that itme the market was low then when we tried to bu y another house the market was very high and we could n ot afford
another two bedroom house. to think we o
nly had 1 000 dollars left on it so we should have fefinanced it and lived right there.
1 person likes this
@blitzfrick (2890)
• United States
8 Nov 15
@ElizabethWallace oh yes, I've misplaced my trust way too many times too.
1 person likes this
@ElizabethWallace (12074)
• United States
7 Nov 15
@Hatley We all make financial mistakes like that. My biggest ones were caused by trusting people who turned out to have zero integrity. 
2 people like this
@blitzfrick (2890)
• United States
8 Nov 15
How well does that work? I get a stray ant in my house now and then but my next door neighbor is plagued with them and constantly looking for a remedy.
@thauser (35)
• United States
8 Nov 15
I have scattered the coffee grounds around the outside the house and by the entrance and have not seen an ant since last year.@blitzfrick
@Hatley (163776)
• Garden Grove, California
6 Nov 15
hi I did read avouit that i n some gardening book and when we still had our house i u sed to do that for that hard clay and it really did
'work too. we sold the house and that was the most stupid thing we ever did in lkur marriage as we co uld not again afford to buy a hou se houses here in southern calif are horrilbly expensive and we had sold at a ti me before the rise in costs of houses so we lost out., sad as we had j uston thousan more to pay and it wo uld h ave breen clear
1 person likes this
@snowqueen200802 (1463)
• United States
6 Nov 15
My grandma do that all of the time and even on her indoors plants. 
1 person likes this
@Auntylou (4264)
• Oxford, England
7 Nov 15
I used to put them on my compost heap, but my garden has no room for one at the moment and I put them instead, bags, filters and all, into our food waste which is collected by the local council and used to make electricity plus fertiliser.
