So I've read over and over, in various places, about how great coffee grounds are as fertilizer. Both in the compost heap, and directly into your garden soil.
I don't make coffee often, but since getting my garden together, and the compost pile going, I was looking forward to my next brew, since the grounds would no longer go to waste!
It was about a week ago, I think, that I took my grounds, swished them with some water, and poured them into one of my hanging strawberry planters.
Now I check my berry plants neurotically several times a day -- except for two planters, which are under the eaves. I do check them, but they're more awkward to get to, and a bit of an experiment anyway (they get almost no light, but I'd run out of other places to hang them from lol).
It's been raining like crazy for like 2 weeks straight here, so I haven't been checking on my plants as often, but still a couple times a day. I *thought* I was checking those ones at least once a day recently, but I could be wrong.
I got a real shock this morning when I went outside. I checked one of the under-eaves plants and they were DEAD. Or close to it. Wilted, shrivelled, brown. My first thought was "oh dear, I forgot to water them, because everything else has been watered by the rain, and I didn't realize these guys were too sheltered and now they're dried up."
But, the OTHER plant that's under the eaves is just fine, and its soil is just as dry.
Every other strawberry plant is doing fabulously (I have 25 around the porch), I'm getting lots of berries, including a few that look like they're just about ready to ripen (surely they can't get much bigger!).
The ONLY thing I can think of that's different for this plant, is the coffee grounds.
But why on earth would this happen? They're supposed to be GOOD for the plants.
I don't make coffee often, but since getting my garden together, and the compost pile going, I was looking forward to my next brew, since the grounds would no longer go to waste!
It was about a week ago, I think, that I took my grounds, swished them with some water, and poured them into one of my hanging strawberry planters.
Now I check my berry plants neurotically several times a day -- except for two planters, which are under the eaves. I do check them, but they're more awkward to get to, and a bit of an experiment anyway (they get almost no light, but I'd run out of other places to hang them from lol).
It's been raining like crazy for like 2 weeks straight here, so I haven't been checking on my plants as often, but still a couple times a day. I *thought* I was checking those ones at least once a day recently, but I could be wrong.
I got a real shock this morning when I went outside. I checked one of the under-eaves plants and they were DEAD. Or close to it. Wilted, shrivelled, brown. My first thought was "oh dear, I forgot to water them, because everything else has been watered by the rain, and I didn't realize these guys were too sheltered and now they're dried up."
But, the OTHER plant that's under the eaves is just fine, and its soil is just as dry.
Every other strawberry plant is doing fabulously (I have 25 around the porch), I'm getting lots of berries, including a few that look like they're just about ready to ripen (surely they can't get much bigger!).
The ONLY thing I can think of that's different for this plant, is the coffee grounds.
But why on earth would this happen? They're supposed to be GOOD for the plants.
