Source: GreenTalk

My roses would start the season with beautiful glossy leaves.  But by the middle of the season, the leaves would be downright ugly due to Rust, a fungal disease.  I figured my sprinkler system was the culprit since roses do not like their foliage to remain wet.

Last summer, they looked so terrible that I cut them back.  Honestly, I never thought they would grow back.   Although, I have been gardening for five years,  most of my planting experience is through trial and error.  Um,  a lot of error.

One day, my friend came over with her mom,  a true garden maven.   After looking at my roses (or what was left of them), she said “sprinkle coffee grounds around them and they will flourish.” I was desperate because my roses looked so pathetic.  It couldn’t hurt? Right?

I started taking hubby’s left over coffee grounds and sprinkling it around the roses and sure enough, they started to grow. I was amazed!

Starbucks to the Rose Rescue

Since  hubby was my family’s only coffee drinker, I needed another source of coffee grounds to give to my other plants.  Cards on the table?  My addiction needed another source.

What about Starbucks, I pondered.   I bet they would gladly give me their grounds.

When I got to the store, Starbucks must have known that gardeners love coffee grounds.  Right by the door was a wastebasket with a little sign, “Grounds for your Garden.”  I reached in and snatched my garden treasure.  You would have thought I won the lottery.

With all this happiness of my new found source of coffee grounds, I still had no idea how much to give to my rose plants. So I gave them probably more than enough to cause any human to stay up half of the night!  Come to think of it, those roses seem to stand up way to straight.

The Rose Flourished

Lo and behold, the roses continue to flourish. Was it the coffee grounds or the weather?  Or the roses were simply prospering despite my “magical” coffee grounds?

Nah, it was the coffee grounds.

I started to make weekly pilgrimages to Starbucks.  Okay, I was hooked and I don’t even drink the stuff.  (Anna, let’s get real, you became a Starbucks stalker.)  Sometimes, other gardeners would beat me to the punch and grab those darn bags.  It was a sad day in Annaville.  Even the employees at the store saw my sadness and promised to keep some aside just for me.  (Yeah, a bunch of enablers.  Love them.)

Then I started to obsessed about my other plants.   How about my hydrangeas?  They were pink and they should be blue.  Could the acidity in the  grounds turn the hydrangeas from pink to blue?  I bet.

But in the back of my what was left of my logical mind, I wondered, was I giving my plants too much coffee grounds?  Was I harming them?

Well,  I won’t spoil the answer for you even if you threaten to take the coffee grounds away from me.  You’ll just have to read Coffee Grounds, Friend or Foe.  Don’t forget to read how to compost your grounds too.