COFFEE GRINDS-What do you think??????

Any and all opinions welcome here!!!

Here's the STORY--NOT so short.......

Encouraged by all the hype about Coffee Grinds----I have started going to my nearest (less than a mile) "7-Eleven" store and taking home the contents of both of their trash cans--located by their multitudes of coffee brewer machines.
Sometimes I hit a "strike"----other times, "Sorry! We just took all that to the dumpster" reply when i ask.
This morning--I went early (9AM)--as they always advised me to do to get any good amount of the grinds--and went home with a super large amount of them.

By now--I had 3 trash bags of them sitting under my picnic table on my Patio.
MAN!!! You cannot believe how heavy even a 1/3-full trash bag of Coffee Grinds can be!
They are always so nice there---helping remove the obvious large trash from the bags---like a zillion empty plastic bottles of creamer and a zillion empty foil bags the coffee came in.
I deal with the rest of it after I get it home----drinking straw....half-eaten Bagels---foil rip-off tops from coffee bags--used paper towels---etc...etc...etc....

NOW! Then there are a zillion coffee filters that they just take out of the machines and throw in the trash can--with the precious grinds in it--of course! SOOO many! I cannot believe it!

SO! I am standing outside--by my work-table sorting through all this.....the "TRASH" trash-can besides me and an empty 5gal. bucket on the other side.....From 5 random trips to "7-Eleven"--I have now 1-1/2, 5gal. buckets-full of pure Coffee Grinds.....

As I dug through all the "trash"---I was layering the filters, like a stack of pancakes, in a large saucer for some kind of use.....I now have an 8" stack. This is the main reason for my Post.
HOW TO USE ALL THESE COFFE-GRIND DREDGED FILTERS?????

Been reading, here and there on the Tomato advice Posts, that once the Tomatoes are planted, one should put down layers of newspaper all around them to "Ward off soil-born diseases"....--then put grass clippings or other mulch on top of the papers....

My "AHHHHAAAAA!" moment today was------What if I put all these coffee-grind covered filters all around my Tomato plants (I only have 6) as a soil cover??????

My more important question for posting this was----WOULD tomatoes benefit from Coffee Grinds???? Do Tomatoes like acid soil? Would it hurt them in any way? The reason for this Post!

And--as many of you know---My SEM (Stupid Earth Machine Composter) is full and i cannot keep adding things to it until I empty it. So do not suggest I add it to my compost! I know all about that......

For a few laughs.....I have been dropping off all my larger, "fresher" vegetable scraps at the "Pet Smart" sore next to the HD I work in. WHEN and IF I get to empty my SEM--this will stop.
By now--I am well known there.......Sometimes, when i have to work early, and they are not yet open (10AM), I leave the bag outside their door.....They love my "donations" and so do all their critters!

WHERE else, and HOW else, can I use these grinds in my Garden? I can keep going and getting them.....but need a reason.
YES! I have already used them for my Camellia.....I DO NOT have any Rhodos and only 2 Azaleas.....

Please share your constructive thoughts and opinions here.....

Thanks, Gita

Gita, compost them, filters and grounds. Throw in your grass clippings, non-meat or oil kitchen scraps, raked leaves, etc. Before you know it, you'll have wonderful compost.

You don't need anything fancy for a compost pile. You can make one with chicken wire or even just leave the pile open with nothing around it.

hart---

OH! Where have you been???? You do not know---that I ONLY have this SEM (Stupid Earth Machine)composter!!!!
I wish I had what you are suggesting!!!!! I DO NOT have a free range compost pile!!!! Nor a place to have one! I live in a development!!!!

My composter is small--I cannot, really, retrieve the composted contents through that "stupid" little drawer and it has not been emptied in 3 years. Always a project in my mind--but then i run out of time.....or energy.....

I envy you all that have a farm-kind of a property where you can just have a regular compost pile!!!!

Here is my poor excuse of one........

Gita, I may live in the boondocks now but lived in cities for 30 years before I moved here and in a town before that. I used to live in a development in a townhouse with a pretty small townhouse back yard and I had a compost pile that had nothing holding it. If you feel the need to contain it, make a circle of chicken wire. Or get a large, cheap plastic trashcan and cut a door in the bottom. Or just shovel in a bit more from the bags every week or so in your little one.

Gita, you can just spread the coffee grounds over the surface of your gardens, they decompose quickly. As for the filters, you can use them like newspapers. When I lived where I had enough sun to grow tomato plants I would lay down partially unfolded sections of newspaper and overlap them several inches, covering all the ground in the tomato garden. Then I wet them down and covered them with leaf mold, straw or other compost. No weeds all season, less watering, no fruit getting nasty from being on the soil. By the next spring there was a nice layer of humus to work into the soil. Dont see why you can't do the same with coffee filters, it would be a lot more tedious though. The small amount of acid in the filters would be flushed out by the rain.

Yup, he got it.
I just sprinkle the grounds on, or rake them in a little. Do not worry about the pH, they will not make it acid.