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Coffee Can Perk Up Your Garden Naturally

From Fairfax to Falls Church and Middleburg to McLean, homeowners in Northern Virginia love their gardens. If you're an expert gardener, you probably already know that coffee and tea grounds can provide a valuable source of nutrition for your garden. The proper amount to be used depends on the condition of the soil and, more specifically, what you are growing in your garden. While you should check with an area nursery or local gardening expert to learn what's best for your situation, here are some general tips for using coffee grounds in your garden:

• When applying coffee grounds directly in the garden: Coffee grounds can be applied along with other materials as a side dressing for vegetables, roses, and other plants. Coffee grounds are high in nitrogen, but are also acidic. Adding brown material such as leaves and dried grass to the mulch will help keep a balanced soil pH.
• When adding coffee grounds to your compost: Coffee grounds act as a green material with a carbon-nitrogen (C-N) ratio of 20-1. They make an excellent addition to your compost. Combined with browns such as leaves and straw, coffee grounds generate heat and will speed up the composting process.
• When using coffee grounds in a worm bin: Worms fed with coffee grounds combined with other materials will flourish.
• Coffee grounds also can control some bugs, like ants, which supposedly hate coffee say some experts.

Call Second Nature at 1-800-283-7115 and let us help you create a beautiful, healthy landscape for your Northern Virginia residence.