Spent coffee grounds can provide a valuable source of nutrition for your garden. Coffee grounds are considered a good nitrogen source, and coffee grounds help absorb moisture and can improve the texture and fertility of soil. However, because coffee is acidic, be cautious when using coffee grounds because while coffee grounds can be applied directly to vegetables and acid loving plants such as azaleas, roses, blueberries, conifers, or hydrangeas. To use it as a fertilizer for other plants, it is a good idea to mix the grounds with lime, leaves, or dried grass to balance out the pH. Also be aware that the grounds can burn young plants You can also dilute your coffee grounds with water for an excellent liquid fertilizer. If you compost, coffee grounds are for you! They have a carbon-nitrogen ratio of 20:1 and generate heat to speed the composting process.
Coffee grounds are also excellent in a worm bin. If you carry worms for fishing, fill your bait container half full with moist grounds and your worms will be easier to get a hold of when you need them. Grounds are effective as an abrasive in cleaners from pot cleaner to foot scrub as they are abrasive enough to clean greasy (stain resistant) surfaces, but gentle enough to avoid scratches. Grounds mixed with some water can be used to make a non-colorfast brown dye to give white fabric a mellow sienna color or an aged look. The dye can be set by adding 10mL alum, 30mL vinegar, or soda ash to the solution and letting your item sit in the solution for fifteen more minutes.
I’m not sure about this one, but supposedly if you dry coffee grounds thoroughly on a cookie sheet in your oven. Then stuff the grounds into old pieces of nylon stockings and tie off the ends. You can put the stockings in places like your refrigerator, under kitchen sinks, and in musty smelling closets to act as a natural deodorizer. Lastly, compressing grounds with candle wax and molasses make great fire logs. One company “Java-Log” is manufacturing and marketing these. I’m sure there are other innovative uses for spent coffee grounds that have yet to be discovered, if you discover one, let us know and we can give you some!