Grow Garlic With This Kitchen Scrap For Naturally Fertilized & Healthy Plants

Growing garlic in your garden is not difficult and can be highly rewarding when you dig up those aromatic bulbs to use in your cooking. Garlic likes fertile and loose soil that is well-drained along with a nice sunny spot in your garden for optimum growth. If you're planning to grow garlic in your garden, make sure learn everything you need to know to water your garlic the right way by striking a good balance of sufficient moisture without waterlogging your plants. You can help your garlic plants thrive even further by using a common kitchen scrap as a natural fertilizer. This kitchen scrap? None other than spent coffee grounds.

There are many benefits to using coffee grounds around your garlic plants. The grounds can provide some nutrients to your garlic and they also help to enrich the soil and improve soil structure which is especially important for those garlic bulbs to develop. You can also use a thin layer, around half an inch or less, of coffee grounds as mulch around your garlic plants. But make sure you cover this with a 4-inch-thick layer of another organic mulch to prevent the coffee grounds from compacting.

Spent coffee grounds provide a lovely tonic for your garlic plants by adding a small amount of nutrients such as nitrogen, potassium, phosphorus, calcium, and magnesium to the soil as they decompose. As garlic likes a moderate to high amount of nitrogen, the coffee grounds can be very useful in keeping your plants healthy and thriving. Another benefit of sprinkling some coffee grounds around your garlic plants is that they may suppress a certain percentage of fungal rot, and as garlic can sometimes be subject to bulb rot if soils remain wet, this could be useful.

What's even more important for healthy garlic bulbs is that coffee grounds are loved by earthworms and earthworms are really good at breaking up the soil as they tunnel their way through the ground. Loose, friable soil gives the garlic bulbs a much better chance of growing nice and large so that you can enjoy a bumper harvest. As the worms devour those coffee grounds, they produce castings, which will also help to feed your plants. It's just like having a worm farm right there in your garden! Before you head out to plant some lovely garlic bulbs, don't forget to check out the garlic hack you need to know before planting in your garden. And, while you're tending your vegetable garden, you can also use coffee grounds to give tomato plants a boost.