Friday, 15 August 2025

When Life Gives You Lemons ...

 


When life gives you lemons ... buy more yellow stuff to match them.  😄

I called into Booths after having my haircut first thing yesterday morning.  It was so hot outside and deliciously cool in the store so I followed the cool air.  I mainly wanted some lemons and a banana, so I think I got away quite lightly with only three other things leaping into my trolley.

It was so lovely and cool in there that I decided to go upstairs and treat myself to a coffee.  Between the coffee and a glass of tap water I managed to stay in the cool of the café for almost an hour, replying to comments on previous blog posts, doing my Wordle and my Woodoku daily puzzle and generally enjoying the chilly air-con.

Then it was back home before my ice-lollies melted in the heat of the car. 

I struck gold, well coffee-ground gold in the café for the first time while I was there.  

They have a basket at the end of the counter that has a sign saying 'Coffee Grounds for Your Garden, please help yourself'.  I have never seen any in it, obviously going in so early in the morning is the way forward, so I might have to call for another cup of coffee early one morning.  😉


Coffee grounds can be a beneficial addition to your garden, improving soil structure, providing nutrients, and even deterring pests when used correctly.

Benefits of Coffee Grounds

  1. How to Use Coffee Grounds

18 comments:

  1. We were putting the grounds from our nespresso pods in the compost and recycling the emptied pods. It was quite an effort putting each pods into a gadget that pushed the grounds out, then rinsing the pods. Now we can recycle the complete pods which makes life much easier. Putting out bags of coffee grounds from a cafe is a brilliant idea.

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    1. A lot of the places my Mum and Dad used to go to would have bags of coffee grounds for gardeners, but then their favourite places were actually garden centres so I can understand that. ;-)

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  2. Thank you, Sue, I put the filter paper (with coffee grounds) into my compost bin. Like you I love my morning coffee. I am another Susan. Good to have the information about what the benefits are and have decided to keep some of the grounds for a couple of large pots with shrubs. Best wishes to Sue from Susan

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    1. There are a LOT of us Sue's, Susan's and various variations of our name Susan in blogland, as you will possibly find out from the comment section on here. We also mostly around the same age too, and with a LOT of us born under the star sign Aries, which is perhaps the strangest thing!

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  3. Like Susan, I put the full filter paper [from coffee machine] straight into the compost bin. If making just two cups in the cafetiere, that gets refilled with water, swished around and poured out over the raised bed just outside the door. I think it really does improve the soil

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    1. I've never had a coffee machine that's needed filter papers, but what a good way to dispose of them. The swishing of the cafetiere is probably my favourite idea, you can choose which plants to water with it each and every time, working your way around the garden and pots.

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  4. I use my filters in the bottom of pots, it allows water to run out without the soil making any mess, we have a good system here for saving and drying the used coffee.

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    1. That's a good idea,. This year I have had the grass trimmings brought back from the flat in Wales as a base layer in all of my pots, it's worked really well.

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  5. I have been using the coffee grounds from my daughter's coffee (I drink tea) in the compost.

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    1. I'm going to put a couple of handfuls in the compost bin and then distribute the rest around the garden as equally as I can. Hopefully I will be able to get some more soon.

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  6. We used to be able to get bags of coffee grounds free from Morrisons store when we lived in the park home and they were very useful. We can't get them here, unfortunately.
    Angie

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    1. That's such a shame, I know Costa used to give them away as well, but we've not been in a Costa Coffee for a long time.

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  7. Hi Sue, we use coffee grounds and crushed eggshells around our garden, pleased to say it has stopped local cats from coming in and pooing at random, also the mini rhododendrons have prospered. The roses are fed on chopped banana skins and in general the used teabags are scattered around the garden for extra nutrients as the soil here is of poor quality, unfortunately my best attempts at bin composting have always failed but I do my best with ‘open’ composting i e chuck organic waste about liberally!! Jan in Castle Gresley

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    1. I have always been quite successful at composting, more by chance than experience I sometimes suspect. Even my tiny compost bin in this garden gave us a couple of buckets of good compost after our first two years here. But like you I did try just dumping all the peelings and garden waste in one of my raised beds last year and then topping it with a layer of old bought compost, and it worked out really well. Anything is good to improve the beds.

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  8. Now I've got visions of lemons and bananas jumping into your trolley at the supermarket 😆
    Alison in Devon x

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    1. You make me sound like Mary Poppins. :-)

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  9. I have enjoyed strolling around the local Sainsbury’s superstore when it is too hot or cold outside. The latest 30°C days I shut the curtains to keep the heat out, and sat with my feet in a bucket of cool water and read my library books. So elegant!
    Paper coffee filters used in a simple cone over a jug, no mess and easy to compost. I put some black coffee in a vacuum flask to have later.

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    1. This weather is enough to turn us all into shopaholics isn't it. :-)

      That's a genius idea with the coffee filter and cone, you've made me realise that I could just use my funnel, either jar filling version or the narrow one with a paper filter. :-)

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