Country Lore: Reusing Tea and Coffee Grounds in Compost

If you are a tea drinker, you can add used tea bags to the compost bucket. I recycle spent loose tea by sprinkling it in the garden row when planting radishes. I find it is a deterrent to the little root maggots that bite into the radishes before I get the chance.

If there is a coffee house near you, ask the manager to save the coffee grounds so you can use coffee grounds in compost material. Some coffee houses also offer, for a nominal price, the burlap bags the coffee beans are shipped in. You can use these bags, dampened, to shield seeds while they germinate in the garden.

Clare Hafferman
Kalispell, Montana