Starbuck's UCG's are the bomb

[engineeredgarden]

The nearest starbuck's is 50 miles away, and you can bet that anytime I'm around one - I stop for their UCG's. I had to go to Hunstville today (75 miles away), and stopped at 3 different stores. The bounty was around 20 lbs. of grounds, and I just love those things! I have to go back on November 16th, and you can bet that all 3 stores will be hit again..hehe...

EG

[thanrose]

Yeah, they do a super volume of coffee, but donut shops will, too. I'll pick mine up from Dunkin because it's closest, but always have an excuse why I haven't gotten any lately.

It's gonna depend on the store manager how things are discarded and if they will set stuff aside for you. For others thinking of doing this, you might ask the manager on duty if they'd either toss them in a bin you provide and promise to empty several times a week, or at least put them in a recognizable bag or area of the dumpster. Most won't want to save them in the store for you.

[toxcrusadr]

Although I pass several coffee shops daily, I've never done this routinely because of the usual lack of time but more importantly, if I'm going to ask a manager to set them aside, I darn well better show up twice a week to get them. Otherwise said manager will be less willing to do anything for the next person who asks. I always figured "some day" I'll have the time to do it right. A real shame most of the grounds go in the landfill.

[applestar]

With Starbucks, you don't have to make it a routine pick up. I call the day before when I know I'm going to be in the area and intend to pick up. They're OK with that. In my area, apparently either not enough people pick up OR too many do. If I drop in unannounced, they usually don't have any because someone else "JUST PICKED UP." Either that or it's what a more honest manager told me: They don't usually package them because nobody picks them up (she apologized profusely), but can have them ready for me if I call a day ahead or in the morning for evening pickup.

Sometimes, when they say they don't have any, and you say you'll take whatever they've got, you still end up with a hefty 1/2 a kitchen trashbag full.

[rot]

..
Starbuck's UCG's are the bomb: agreed.

If you walk in and tell them you'll take what they have - no need to package, you can often get a 60 lb garbage bag or more. They are real happy to unload the stuff without having to package it. Otherwise it will be less. Sometimes they will have none if your timing is bad. Not a major disaster. Although my shoulders are having a hard time of the 60 lb bags these days.

When I was hitting 5 or 6 stores a night, there was one that always looked at me kind of funny and I had to act grateful when they gave me half a donut box worth. I never did buy any coffee from them. Went out of my way to go elsewhere for that. Some folks just don't get it.
..

[engineeredgarden]

rot i i've been lucky enough to get a garbage bag or two in the past, and that's the way I really like to get it. Calling ahead is essential...

EG

[rot]

..
I hear you EG. I was there at one point. Now my aim is digesting organics as opposed to producing the most compost as fast as I can.

I can use all the coffee grounds I can get. I can also live without it. If I feel like I need coffee grounds it becomes habit to hit starbucks. Once I start hitting a starbucks on a regular basis, I get lots of coffee grounds. Once I slack off, I get less. If I feel like coffee grounds and walk in and get none I feel it's kismet, karma and I move on. Not a major disaster.

If you need or want lots of coffee grounds you have to work it whether it's calling ahead or hitting them every day. At peak I was getting a couple of hundred pounds a week but it was work to get it and then it was work to make use of it. What does one do with a couple of hundred pounds of coffee grounds a week? Coffee grounds will choke the air filter in your lawn mower and they will crust over making it difficult to water if you lay them in beds. Too many coffee grounds in a compost bin makes for a black gooey mess.

Nowadays, I use coffee grounds with something else and never alone. Coffee grounds as cover need grass clippings in my opinion to mitigate the crusting effect. Whether covering bare ground or a smelly bin, I like grass clippings on top of that for watering purposes. Grass clippings by themselves works well enough and I get along.

I'm getting grass clippings from the neighbors and yeah it would be cool to throw down some coffee grounds first but I can't count on the neighbors to produce when I have coffee grounds to throw down.

Coffee grounds, grass clippings it's all gravy. I'm digesting what we produce with or without starbucks or the neighbors so some smelly ol' truck doesn't have to haul it away and I've done something. I'm a tiny bit more sustainable. I'm a tiny bit less reliant on curbside pick up. The yard, the garden is a tiny bit better for it. What's not to like?

Get 'em while you can. When others figure out that they provide value, they may not be so available. Just don't pin all your operations on their availability.

two cents
..

[engineeredgarden]

rot - dried grass clippings are one of my favorites too, and it's way easier to get them at will. If I had 200 lbs. of UCG's, they would last me for at least a year. Gosh, I don't know what i'd do with a bounty like that!

EG

[rot]

..
I wish I could get grass clippings at will like I can get the used coffee grounds just by hitting different locations each evening. I'm slowly getting some grass to come back where the dogs have run it into the ground by mulching the now hard ground with any extra grass clippings I can get. If I double whammy the ground with coffee grounds and grass clippings on top of the grounds and the dogs don't churn it up too much it's amazing what that will do to hard ground. The grass clippings prevent things from drying out which is easy 'round here and the worms just dig the coffee grounds.

My compost operations are all now slowing down because I've been using fewer grass clippings there.

I really should be getting more coffee grounds but I've gotten lazy. It's work work work these days and I get to see the yard in daylight only on the weekends. These days though, I'm content to have a job and not be on the market and to digest what we produce in the bio-remediation bins some call compost. I'm having trouble keeping up with the yard as it is so, I might as well mellow out some on the composting and pay attention to those things that need some water and minding.

Two hundred pounds of coffee grounds:
- Crown a 3' x 3' x 3' bin with 60 to a hundred pounds - but without grass clippings on top of that layer it becomes a crust requiring really really slow watering.
- Cover one of 4 or 5 beds with about a hundred pounds - but without grass clippings on top water just runs right off after it dries.
- Anything left over can get churned into a compost bin - I once made a 17 cu ft bin 50 percent by weight coffee grounds just to see what would happen. I nursed that sucker along for 8 or 9 months. Just a black gooey mess. It was all I could do to just turn that sucker every chance I got.
- I once spread about 2 hundred pounds on the beds out front flanking the walkway to the house. For two weeks it was wake up and smell the coffee each morning I stepped out to go to work (starbucks smells lots better than that office drip stuff).
- I used coffee grounds for a short while to check a snail population gone wild. The problem was once the grounds went stale the snails would come back and so I was just layering coffee grounds on coffee grounds. I tried at one point of drying out the coffee grounds so I could just sprinkle them thinly and then they would break down about as fast as I added fresh grounds but drying out coffee grounds, even with our desert influence, is a colossal pain in the butt.

I will forever be engineering the garden.
..

[Bloody Boots]

Don't forget your local gas station/convenience stores! The one I stop at nearly every morning is glad to drop all the grounds from their 5 coffee pots into my 5-gallon buckets, and I get easily 20 gallons a week!

All you've got to do is usually ask nicely and provide your own container and lid!

Though it helps if your already a "regular".

[rot]

..
I'm not sure I want to know where the handle Bloody Boots comes from. But the point is well taken. Be politic and be patient and you will get the goods.

to sense
..

[toxcrusadr]

On the topic of crustiness: I have never had that much at a time where I could make a complete layer, but generally speaking, if you have something like that that sheds water, and you want to use it as mulch, it's best to use it as an underlayer and cover it with something that will absorb water better. It will stay moist and be less likely to crust. A spongy material like shredded wood mulch or shredded leaves over the top would absorb the water and feed it into the grounds. Then you get the benefits of it without the watering problems.

[The Helpful Gardener]

Grounds are great because we get a high carbon, high nitrogen item; it makes its own compost! Browns and greens in the same package!

How cool is that?

HG

[rot]

..
HG,

I remember reading in a starbucks website some time ago, can't seem to find it anymore, that they had a 20/1 C:N ratio. The same as grass clippings.

Same for the Cornell University reference I use, http://compost.css.cornell.edu/OnFarmHa ... taba1.html.

Just how much carbon is in coffee grounds?

to sense
..

[The Helpful Gardener]

20:1

What is the ratio of browns to greens we want in our compost? Like five or six to one, right? Still plenty of carbon here to give up... not as much as wood but way more nitrogen...

Plus all the humic acids and tannins, more to this than just carbon and nitrogen. But it's a pretty good ratio and the add-ons make it cook real nice...

HG