Coffee grounds, rich in sulfur and tannic acid, are sometimes used as mulch around acid-loving plants like hydrangeas (Hydrangea spp.) , ranging from hardiness from U.S. Department of Agriculture plant hardiness zones 5 through 10. Don’t make that coffee grounds mulch thicker than 1 inch, however, or it may prevent rainwater from percolating through it. Gardeners also add coffee grounds to the seeds of carrot (Daucus carota subsp. Sativus) when putting them because the coffee grounds gag carrot root maggots. Coffee grounds, however, aren’t the only table scrap which may be of assistance to beleaguered gardeners.
Citrus Peels
To a cat, the newly turned and fluffy soil in your garden bed may look like one large litter box. Prevent all of your neighborhood felines by making use of the “facilities” by strewing orange or lemon peels above that soil. Cats reportedly are repelled by the odor of citrus, which makes them sneeze. You also can utilize these rinds as easy slug snares since slugs will be enticed to curl up and wrap under them during daylight hours. Peek under the peels in the early hours to spy on and dispose of the slugs.
Banana Peels
As opposed to slipping on your banana peels, consider slipping them into the garden soil around your rose bushes (Rosa spp., USDA zones 2 through 11, based on the number). Their high potassium material reportedly will cause those trees to really go bananas with blooms. Use about only three peels for every single bush, snipping them to pieces with kitchen shears first to help them break down fast. Banana below the ground is supposed to repel aphids over the ground, too, though nobody has been able to describe why that usage works.
Crushed Eggshells
Instead of “shelling out” for pricey slug bait, scatter crushed eggshells around plants that you would like to protect. Slugs are understandably reluctant to drag their soft bodies through eggshell shards and should detour around them instead. You also may be able to prevent blossom end rot in tomatoes (Solanum lycopersicum, USDA zones 8 through 12) by working about four calcium-rich, crushed eggshells into each planting hole once when putting your tomato seedlings.
Used Teabags
Like coffee grounds, tea leaves are rich in tannic acid. As opposed to throwing away used teabags, cut those that contain black or green tea and spread the leaves above the soil below your acid-loving plants. In case the teabags are totally biodegradable, it is possible to simply slip them under the plants’ mulch instead of cutting them open. You also could place some used teabags under the soil of the acid-loving potted plant, where its origins can draw nutrients out of them.