I am super busy in moving my things from upstairs to downstairs and in between. I know I need to do a post on making jook, and continuing the Korean Natural Farming techniques but even my plants and soil are on hold.

A quick note about coffee grounds: I would save my coffee grounds every morning after making my cup of coffee (and adding a teaspoon of MCT oil for brain and body health). Then, after I have an ample quantity, I would sprinkle it around the mango tree, on the grass, and occasionally on potted plants such as roses, bougainvillea, etc. I also started sprinkling it on my bed of struggling asparagus.

Lately, I lost 2 wonderful plants in large pots. One was a small tree with willow like branches and flowers with large white petals – my West Indian pea plant. Another was a rather large spreading bush/tree with glorious purple sprays of flowers like wisteria – Golden dewdrop. I couldn’t figure out what was happening because these were strong healthy plants for years.

Then it hit me – it was the coffee grounds which I was getting more generous in these pots because I thought it was good for them. They could handle a little boost but not chunks of used up coffee grounds. The rose bushes were fine but other more delicate plants such as asparagus could not tolerate it. Even my bougainvillea struggled a bit, but they are such hardy plants that I have turned into bonsai-like trees in restrictive pots, they would lose all their leaves and then get new foliage. Ginger plants started dying. Heliconias shriveled up and disappeared.

So, lesson learned the hard way – I don’t save my coffee grounds anymore. I just toss them in the trash and NOT in the disposal (which I USED to think was good for the disposal).

Do you use coffee grounds successfully? I sure haven’t, poor plants.

An aside:

One of my favorite Seattle blog sites that I visit is Linda’s Letters, who is a wonder in the kitchen and her garden is show worthy. She does wonderful flower arrangements around her house with vintage vases which she picks from her garden planted with species that we can’t have here, such as her canopy of Wisteria that is glorious in bloom. Our common plants here in Hawaii need protection from the cold up there. Linda seems to like tropical plants a lot and takes photos of them whenever she visits plant nurseries in the Pacific Northwest.

I end this quickie post with a lovely centerpiece that I won at our latest HSFAG (Hawaii Stitchery and Fibre Arts Guild) party that past president Aileen Kaneshiro made for all the tables. It is really lovely and made with common plants we have here and probably growing in her back yard. Mahalo, Aileen, for letting me show off a beautiful arrangement of our Hawaii bounty. I wish I could say I did it, but not today.