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Starbucks, Ants and Apples

Reader Contribution by Mary Conley
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(A Sidetrack from the Story of our Farm)

My daughter-in-law, Nancy, loves Starbucks, and especially now that she has moved to Estes Park where she can drink it with her hubby, Todd, while sitting by the Big Thompson River. I believe I have only had two Starbucks coffees in my life, but I often frequent one of their stores. You see, they package up their used coffee grounds, put a special label on them, and let anyone take them for their gardens.

A bag of used Starbucks coffee grounds.

This is how it works.

The label tells the ground’s benefit to soil, and I have used them in raised beds and added to the compost pile, but what I use it most often for is to deter ants. Ants just don’t like to go through a pile of coffee grounds. I used to save my own grounds, but there was never enough, so imagine my excitement when the Starbucks in the entry of our local Hy-Vee grocery store began setting out the bags for us!

Besides around the house, we started putting a thick layer around our beehive after we discovered ants had moved in. Then this fall, it dawned on me that the only way ants could get to our apples was to crawl up the trunk of the trees. Duh! Yes, you guessed it; Larry and I put a thick layer around each tree before the fruit started to ripen. It’s the organic way.

We reduce the amount of grounds going into the landfills and save on our environmental footprint.

Many thanks to Starbucks!