Buds are popping on the trees and shrubs, small leaves are creeping up through the soil and bulbs are painting the landscape with a riot of color, all heralding in spring. The other side of this beautiful vision is the yearly spring cleanup that forces our slack muscles and bones to move in ways that seem unnatural to the human body. Gravity too, seems to have a better hold on us. Once we bend over, or God forbid get down on our knees, it takes all our focused attention and willpower to regain a standing position. But we, as gardeners, really don’t mind; it keeps us youthful. And I have always found that an Advil and a cup of good strong coffee prior to starting yard work, puts me in the right frame mind.
The yearly cleanup and soil preparation prior to planting is as essential to the success of the garden as is our putting on sunscreen to curb the crinkles and wrinkles in the future. Therefore, as we are raking old dried, decayed leaves and small twigs and the first grass clippings, remember, they are great additives to the compost pile. My friends that are “earnest” gardeners would add throughout the fall and winter their vegetation scraps to the pile, so that in the spring with a good pitch fork mixing, they would have the most wonderful compost once the sun heated up and cooked the ingredients. One of the ingredients often used was coffee grounds. Coffee grounds generally have a Ph value of 3.0 to 5.0 which equates to a rather acidic level. The best Ph value for overall garden soil is 6.8 to 7.0. But many folks add the grounds to the compost, which when mixed with all the other natural materials is highly prized and levels out to a nice soil balance.
But here is a word to the wise. A number of years ago when I was in the Master Gardener training and first heard the lecture on composting, I decided to take advantage of the free bags of used coffee grounds from Starbucks. All through the winter I collected the free bags and then friends started collecting free bags from various places for me. Soon I had a mountain of used bags of coffee which I trekked by car loads to our show gardens where the mighty compost machine was going to take place. Spring came and I had so much coffee that in a million years I could never use it all. Once the sun started heating everything the mounds of bags started to get moldy (very moldy)—and smelly!! Overwhelmed, I finally decided to dump the grounds by the garage until I could figure out what to do. Of course I got busy with other things and kept putting off the numerous Mt Everest coffee ground piles. That was when I was first introduced to the “sweat (Halictidae) and mining (Adrenidae)” small dark fly-like bees. These bees love to build colonies in the ground, forming huge mounds. And they travel and live in gigantic swarms of Biblical proportions or so it seemed and apparently they loved coffee grounds (easy to tunnel through). They moved in—both species. The females dug their own tunnels, laid thousands of eggs and had their boys pack the tunnels with wads of pollen to feed the developing larvae which then grew into more females and lots of males. Out of desperation, the side of the garage had to be taped off with yellow crime tape until we could figure out what to do with the black cloud of buzzing male bees who were actively protecting their Queens from who knows what. In a frantic state of mind I called my county Extension Agent (who thought this was hilarious) for advice. I found out that these bees are really wonderful pollinators and very beneficial. The other fact is that you can put your hand in the nest and they won’t sting. I did NOT try this and I don’t recommend that you try it either!! The crime scene tape came down and I shoveled the grounds up and bagged them for the garbage. I left one mound which was active all summer with these great pollinators who, on a caffeine high, pollinated the entire neighborhood.
I have started my spring cleanup but as for my compost pile, I am following the rule of “a little can go a long way” when it comes to coffee grounds. So here’s my advice. If you see a mound of these dark fly-like bees in your garden just stay away and ignore them. As for the Spring Cleaning, take Advil for comfort, get a cup of good strong coffee to get you going, gather your rakes, gloves, pruners and sunscreen and dig in.
“Let There Be Light”