Tea Leaves and Coffee Grounds in the Garden

Tea and coffee have long been acknowledged as beneficial for the garden.

There is an old flower garden here which was long neglected, the previous owners were elderly and yard maintenance declined over the years. I can envision the couple stepping out on to the deck in the early morning and dropping their tea bags over the rail directly into the garden. I discovered many tea bags in that little garden for the first couple years. This seems like an easy and good practice, when it rains the plants will get a little weak tea water. However, for the leaves to become a part of the flora community you need to rip those bags open. The leaves need to be able to combine with the soil and compost which they can’t do unless the bag is opened before adding into the garden.

The same practice goes for coffee pouches. These are pre-measured, great and easy for a quick pot of coffee but again, rip them open before adding to the garden or the compost bin.

We take great enjoyment in our gardens and sometimes a little extra step can have an enormous benefit for the garden and therefore for us.

Planting Your First Vegetable Garden?

If you have decided this is the year you are finally going to get a vegetable garden in, start preparing now. Start with a small garden, you can always expand your plot but you don’t want to exhaust or disappoint yourself by going too big too soon.

Plant what you like. If you cook a lot of Italian dishes then go for tomatoes, oregano, sweet peppers. Try a salad garden with a variety of lettuce, tomatoes and cucumbers. Plant peppers in large pots then partially sink them into the garden, when the temperature drops you can pull them out and take them indoors, they will last months longer is a sunny spot. Want vegetables through the winter with little work at preserves, plant peas and beans with a variety of herbs you can hang to dry.

A small garden with a variety of plants is a lot healthier than a large plot with rows of plants.

When you line all the plants up in rows you make them more susceptible to pest and disease. If a pest comes along and starts to munch on one of your tomato plants it will go right along the whole row chomping on each and destroying your full harvest. If you mix it up when the pest hops to the next plant it is not of its liking, it leaves and tries the next and then takes off for better pickings. Mix your veggies and herbs up just like you would a flower garden and the confused pests will take a far lower tole on your plants. A mixed up garden also looks a lot nicer than those boring rows. I call row planting Farm Gardening, farmers have to plant in long straight rows of the same type of vegetable because they use machines to plant, fertilize, and harvest. A nicely planned out vegetable garden looks as lovely as a well tended flower garden, and it is just as relaxing and calming a place to sit and relax.

So, choose well, start small and mix it up and you will have a lovely garden to enjoy your morning coffee in and healthy food on your table.