We are big believers and followers of organic farming and gardening. But alongside that we also enjoy a cup of really GOOD coffee. This ends up in a pretty large pile of used coffee grounds from our plungers by the end of the week. We personally like plunger coffee better than the drip filter stuff. The eco-nature of the our lifestyle negates the use of electric percolators etc and the plunger lets us each control how strong we want the blend! This also leaves a really course ground coffee which we need to dispose of on the island.

So what to do with the used grounds? Well we collect them all in a special bucket and transfer them up to our organic farm and garden. Luckily with the volume of farming and gardening done by Jeanie and Josefa, these grounds never go to waste!

Here are some tips for making great use of those otherwise wasted resources. (I wonder what Starbucks does with its daily tonnes of used grounds?)

throw them directly in to your garden

Coffee grounds can be thrown directly into your gardens and vegetable beds as a side dressing for vegetables, roses and other plants. Coffee grounds are high in nitrogen, but be a bit careful not to overload one spot as they are also pretty acidic. Adding other brown material such as leaves and grass cutting to the mulch will help keep a more balanced pH.

Mixing coffee grounds in your compost

Coffee grounds act as a green material with carbon-nitrogen (C-N) ratio of 20-1. They make an excellent addition to your compost, along with other vegetable and salad kitchen waste.

Combined with other composting material such as leaves, straw and cut grass, coffee grounds generate heat and will speed up the composting process. Grounds should be no more than 25% of any one compost pile's content, otherwise the balance is wrong and the system doesn't work as well.

Using coffee grounds in a worm bin

Worms fed with coffee grounds combined with the normal composting materials will flourish! They grow faster and break down the materials faster. maybe it's all that good caffeine speeding them about!

Matava is an eco adventure getaway offering you a fun and unique blend of cultural experiences and adventure activities in the environmentally pristine and remote island of Kadavu in Fiji.

http://www.Matava.com