Spotted a weird trick with coffee grounds at the Portland Japanese Garden

Honestly, I was just walking through the Portland Japanese Garden last weekend, checking out their moss garden like I always do. Tbh, I saw one of their gardeners sprinkling used coffee grounds around the base of a big, old Japanese maple. I asked him about it, and he said they've been doing it for about 3 years now. He told me it's not really for the acid, but the grounds help keep slugs away from the tender new leaves in the spring. Ngl, I was kinda surprised because I always heard coffee grounds were just for acid-loving plants. He said they just get them from the garden cafe and let them dry out first so they don't mold. Has anyone else tried using coffee grounds for pest control on their ornamentals, or is this just a weird Portland thing?

3 comments

3 Comments

claire_ramirez221mo ago

You know how many old tricks get written off as nonsense before science catches up? I've seen this with a lot of things, not just gardening. People used to laugh at certain ways to keep pests out of a house until it turned out they actually worked. It makes me wonder what other simple fixes we ignore because they sound too folksy. That gardener is onto something by just trying it out instead of overthinking it. We rely way too much on buying a special product when the answer might be sitting in the kitchen trash.

the_elizabeth1mo ago

Kitchen trash" reminds me of my grandma using orange peels to stop cats from digging in her flower beds.

dakota_rivera1mo ago

My neighbor in Arizona swore by used coffee grounds around her rose bushes to keep the snails away. She never bought a single pellet. I tried it myself and it worked better than the store bought stuff. Sometimes the old ways stick around because they just get results, even if we don't know the exact science yet.

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