Three Tons of Coffee, Two Green Thumbs

The shirt was his idea, I swear

Tom Halloran is an active organizing member of Buffalo's Garden Walk. Now in its 16^th year, the Garden Walk has grown to include 355 participant gardens in the Buffalo area. Each year, thousands of visitors come to Buffalo for tours of the Walk, and there are more every summer—this year saw visitors from as far away as the UK, Sweden, and Thailand, as well as Hawaii and Alaska. In addition to a free tour of hundreds of diverse gardens, attendees see the other sights of Buffalo, including architectural landmarks like the Darwin Martin House, and often comment on Buffalo's food scene.

When walkers got within about a block of Tom's Richmond Ave. garden this summer, they started asking: “who's making coffee?” The reason for the rich coffee scent, and for the profusion of Tom's garden, are one and the same: he has been doing a near-daily pick-up of used coffee grounds at Spot Elmwood, and using the coffee as the base for his soil-enrichment program. We sat down and tried to figure out how many pounds he's taken this summer, and came up with a figure somewhere in the range of 3 or 4 tons of coffee.

The front island prepared for the Garden Walk over the course of 3 weeks.

Tom was good enough to share some gardening tips with myself and Scott (fellow Spotter and, more importantly, way better photographer). The primary advantages of using coffee grounds, Tom says, are three. Coffee improves drainage of Buffalo's clay-rich soils, while still retaining some moisture. As the coffee decomposes, it naturally cycles organic nutrients back into the soil. Finally, earthworms love coffee! Increased earthworm activity in Tom's gardens results in more aerated soil, and earthworms' natural processing of organic matter is great for plants.

Perennials thriving in good soil, despite Buffalo's short growing season

Tom's soil preparation method:

• Dig down to the clay layer, which is about 3 inches down. Break this layer up a bit using hand tools.

• Add 3-4 inches of coffee grounds, and rototill in.

• Then Tom adds 3-4 inches of two products, Bumper Crop Organic Soil and Garden Magic Manure. He then rototills this into the coffee/clay mixture.

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  Let the soil sit for 2-3 weeks. Then, plant away!

In the fall, Tom lets his plants die back with little maintenance—it's much easier to clean up in the spring, and this allows the dead plant matter to cycle back into the soil. Once spring rolls around, he loosens the soil and sprinkles a small amount of coffee grounds on the surface to encourage earthworm activity—which you can do whether or not you have access to several tons of spent coffee. Don't overdo it, he warns—too much coffee on the surface can lead to acidic conditions.

Tom is a big fan of gardening over lawn maintenance. Quoting Elizabeth Licata, he says: “Grass is nothing but a big fat pain in the ass.” Tom plants perennials almost exclusively, so he doesn't need to replant each area every year. The dense, lush vegetation keeps weeds down without need for herbicides or hand-weeding, and Tom says he only needs to spend about a week and a half of work each year to keep his garden beautiful—compared to the near-constant mowing, weeding, and watering required by grass.

Carefully maintained greenery surrounds the in-ground pool

If you're interested using large volumes of coffee grounds in you garden, you'd do well to follow Tom's method: bring your own buckets, ask if the baristas would mind dumping their used grinds in there instead of the trash, and pick it up promptly the next day! Most coffee shops will be happy to help, and some might have a composting program already in place. For more composting options, you can check out Urban Roots, Grassroots, and Buffalo Reuse.

Links:

Buffalo Garden Walk

Jim's Gardening Blog

More pictures courtesy Tom Halloran & Scott Tompkins on the Facebook page.

Update: I was curious about what other coffee shops in the area are doing with their compost, so I did a quick informal survey. Caffe Aroma on Bidwell donates their grounds to the Mass. Ave. Project, while Sweetness 7 on Grant & Lafayette sends their compost right across the street to the Urban Gardens greenhouse there. The barista I spoke to at the Starbucks on Elmwood said that they bag their coffee grounds and are happy to reserve a bag for any gardener who asks. If you have any more info on coffee & composting in the area, let me know!