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Composting
Last January I had the opportunity to attend, the Cleveland Botanical Gardens Sustainability Symposium, it was day well spent listening to speakers suggesting ways we can improve our health, lives, soil and communities. I always come away from programs like these contemplating how can I put this "classroom" knowledge into practice.
One of the comments that was made by the guest speaker was, we should drink 6 cups of coffee a day. Wow that is a lot of coffee. If he had realized that I was in the audience he would have pointed his finger at "the old lady in the funky pink running shoes" and mentioned that more is not always better.
The only thing that crossed my mind is how beneficial those grounds would be, to both my compost pile and the soil in my market plants. I could drink more coffee, but that didn't seem wise. So the question was how to obtain more grounds?
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| Marty and Our Neighbor Collecting Leaves |
My son Brian saved his grounds for several months. Then he moved 20 miles away and lost motivation for my cause. I considered putting up a sign, "Compost Coffee Grounds Here". Convincing Marty that we needed a permanent, coffee sign would would take highly persuasive negotiating skills.That isn't going to happen.
I am assuming, the "Recycle Your Pumpkins Here" sign was acceptable, as it was only up for a few weeks.
I must have mentioned my dilemma to my neighbor Jeff. A few weeks ago, he brought over a bucket of coffee grounds. Most neighbors bring over banana bread or cookies, mine bring coffee ground, leaves, potato peals and pumpkins. Jeff typically has his morning coffee at the local coffee shop, I assumed he would be willing to lug sloppy buckets of coffee grounds around. Turns out I was on my own.
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| Bucket of Coffee Grounds |
So the question became, swallow my pride and earn the reputation of "the old lady in the pink shoes" or let all that organic material ending up in a dumpster.
My sister-in-law Beth's description of well seasoned compost echoed over and over in my head " Chocolate Crumb Cake, Chocolate Cake Crumbs". With the percentage of Nitrogen in coffee grounds and alpaca beans relatively close, it came down to which would I rather transport. coffee beans or alpaca beans?
Nine Buckets of Coffee Grounds and Counting!
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| My Car full of Alpaca Beans |
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| Hand Full of Compost |
I get massive quantities of grounds from my local Starbucks. They package their used grounds in bags titled "Grounds for Gardens" and put them out in a bucket in front of the main counter. If they don't have any out when I come by, they'll make a bag for me on the spot, I can usually walk away with ten pounds of grounds. Makes my car smell good!
ReplyDeleteWelcome to the blogosphere!
Love your set up! Grounds for Gardens is a fabulous title; I could see it catching on. Each time I go, it gets a bit easier. The same young people are always there; they just smile and ask if I need help.
ReplyDeleteThank you for the welcoming, so much to learn.
We compost all our coffee grounds. I wish all the local coffee shops would offer grounds to their gardening customers. Maybe all we have to do is ask. It's disturbing to see what goes into landfills. Many big box garden centers throw distressed plants into the dumpsters, pots, soil and all!
ReplyDeleteYes, try asking. I was so nervous in the beginning but after the first few times it was much easier. Just be careful the buckets were heavier than I expected. I learned that the hard way.
ReplyDeleteLike you, seeing so much organic waste in the trash drives me crazy. I have been known to "grab it and run". I wanted to knock on everyone's door at Christmas time and ask for their poinsettia. Next year I will put a Recycle Your Poinsettias sign up a few months after the Recycle Your Pumpkins sign goes down.