Coffee Grounds and Composting

Question: What is your take on composting coffee grounds and putting them on a veggie garden?  M.S.

Answer: I like to use coffee grounds in my own home compost pile.  I’m a coffee drinking junky and generate an ample supply each week.

In an article from Washinton State University:

Coffee grounds have a carbon-to-nitrogen ratio of 20:1, roughly equivalent to that of grass clippings. After brewing, coffee grounds contain up to 2% nitrogen. For composting purposes, consider coffee grounds “green” material similar to grass clippings. For “brown” material, we used leaves and sawdust. In these trials, we used a formula of one part green material (coffee grounds alone or mixed with grass clippings) to two parts leaves, or four parts green material to one part sawdust.

I use biodegradeable filters, too, and toss them into the compost pile, as well.

As veggie gardens benefit from annual additons of organic matter and compost, I know of no problem in using coffee grounds.

More information:

• Composting coffee grounds
• Composting at home
• The composting process