Grounds For Your Garden

My northern Michigan hometown--which used to be a rather charming backwater--now boasts a Home Depot, a Wal-Mart and a Starbucks. It has become Suburbia without being in proximity to an Urbia. Huh.

But this morning I learned something sort of nice--or at least sensible--about the new Starbucks from my mom.

Starbucks, Mom informs me, will give you 5 lbs of coffee grounds for your garden when you purchase a cup of coffee. Upon goggling this, I find that they've been doing this for years--but it is new to us, since Starbucks is new to town.

Mom is working in the garden today because it is a balmy 52F out. Dad's brought out the patio furniture so that they can lounge in the new spring sun.

Mom's grounds are still warm from the brewing. And Mom is too impatient to actually compost them. (At the moment, her compost pile is frozen). So she's digging the grounds directly into her garden. We are not sure this will work ("Does lettuce like coffee?" she asks), but she reports that the new garden smells pretty good.