What To Do With Used Coffee Grounds
- Repair scratched furniture - mix 1 Tablespoon of coffee grounds with 1 teaspoon olive oil. Apply with a cotton ball and wipe dry.
- Double your harvest of carrot and radish - mix carrot and radish seeds liberally with coffee grounds, plant as usual.
- Fertilizer - Coffee grounds are highly acidic. Spread them generously over flower beds of acid-loving plants for amazing blooms. Acid-loving plants include azaleas, rhododendrons, hydrangeas, lily of the valley, roses, and creeping phlox.
- Ant repellent - sprinkle old grounds around the outside of your home to deter ants.
- Garden cat repellent - mix used grounds with chopped orange peels and sprinkle liberally around your garden and flowerbeds to keep the kitties from using your garden as their restroom.
- Treasure stones - Mix 1 cup flour, 1 cup used coffee grounds, 1/2 cup salt, and 1/4 cup sand together. Slowly add water to make a stiff dough. Knead on a floured surface till smooth. Break dough into desired rock sizes. Hide a small toy (plastic jewelry, erasers, balloons, wrapped candy, coins, or charms) in the center of a ball of dough. Dry for 3 to 4 days. When dry, the dough will look and feel like a rock. Kids will get a real kick out of opening the rock with a hammer to find the hidden treasure inside. Hide these treasure stones in your backyard and have the kids hunt for them at your child's birthday party.
- Homemade fossils - Stir together 1 cup of used coffee grounds, 1/2 cup of cold coffee, 1 cup of flour, and 1/2 cup of salt until well mixed. Flatten dough onto waxed paper and use a can to cut circles out of the dough. Press objects from Nature firmly into the dough and remove. When you take the object out of the dough, you have a fossil. Let the fossil dry overnight. This is a neat way for children of any age to get familiar with Mother Nature. Kids come up with amazing ideas, and this is a perfect venue for experimentation.
