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Coffee is such a versatile item, aside from being a much loved beverage, it can be used as a body scrub, some of the women who rock their hair natural claim that the caffeine content is good for their hair. It is also a good addition to your gardening arsenal.

Here is why you should give coffee a try in your garden.

On it’s own, coffee takes a very long time to decompose, making it ineffective as a fertilizer. It is also very acidic. To counter this, you need to mix a small amount of used and damp coffee grounds(to avoid acidifying the soil and killing your plant) and mix it with some compost (rotting fruits and vegetables, old newspapers, leaves, hardwood ash etc ).  If you have a vermiculture bed, you can throw the worms in there too. I have written about vermiculture here.  The worms act on the compost which helps add nutrients to the soil. The coffee grounds release the nutrients in small amounts thus keeping your plant healthy all year round.

Coffee grounds are a rich source of nitrogen which enriches the soil and helps keep your plant in good shape. Nitrogen is utilized by chlorophyll which is a compound in plant that is utilized by plants during photosynthesis. Photosynthesis the process by which plant make their food.

Aside from using coffee to boost the nutritional content of your soil. It also acts as an insect repellent. The rough texture of the grounds is unfavorable to most insects which means that you do not have to use pesticides.