One of our favorite ways to honor the planet is by reusing what’s left behind: coffee grounds and chaff.

From Morning Brew to Garden Gold

Used coffee grounds are rich in organic matter and loaded with essential nutrients like nitrogen, potassium, magnesium, and phosphorus. When added to compost or directly into your garden soil, they help:

Used coffee grounds are rich in organic matter and loaded with essential nutrients like nitrogen, potassium, magnesium, and phosphorus. When added to compost or directly into your garden soil, they help:

🌿 Boost soil structure
🌿 Encourage microbial activity
🌿 Retain moisture in the soil
🌿 Attract earthworms (nature’s little aerators!)

Whether you're composting or sprinkling directly around acid-loving plants like blueberries, azaleas, or hydrangeas, spent coffee grounds are a gentle, sustainable soil amendment.

Tip: Used coffee grounds are only mildly acidic after brewing, making them perfect for most garden beds when used in moderation.

What About Chaff?

Chaff—the papery skin that sheds from a coffee bean during roasting—is often overlooked, but it’s a powerhouse in the compost bin and directly in your garden beds. Light, dry, and carbon-rich, chaff balances the nitrogen-heavy profile of used grounds, making it an ideal brown in your compost recipe.

We mix ours right into the compost pile or work it into the topsoil of our raised beds. It aerates, lightens heavy soils, and eventually breaks down to feed the life within the dirt.

Did you know? Chaff is also a great mulch alternative, helping to reduce weeds and regulate soil temperature.

A Simple Way to Say Thanks

Using coffee waste to enrich your soil is a beautiful, tangible way to return nutrients to the earth that gave them to us in the first place. It’s circular, regenerative, and deeply rewarding.

This Earth Day, we invite you to join us in turning your coffee routine into a gentle act of stewardship. Brew with love, compost with care, and grow with intention.

Want to bring a little extra magic to your own garden?

We’re excited to offer 1-gallon eco-friendly bags of our Thistle & Gold coffee chaff, ready for you to sprinkle into your compost, garden beds, or potted plants. It's a simple, sustainable way to give your soil a boost — and to let nothing from the coffee you love go to waste. 

🪴💛 From our compost pile to yours

xo,

The Gilded Finch