As a self-proclaimed plant aficionado, the notion of putting garbage into a plant is, quite frankly, appalling.
It is difficult to figure out what to do with leftover milk, coffee, Monster, or whatever other beverage someone doesn’t finish. The trek to the nearest sink can be long and arduous. Admittedly, I was known to dump the odd cold cup of coffee out of my window in Ylvisaker Hall, but I was an impressionable first-year at that point in my college career. Now, this is much more difficult to do in Towers, especially on the upper floors, due to the crushing guilt that a person may feel if they accidentally slime another person’s window.
I digress. I was sitting at my desk, thinking about all of the fallacies of the garbage plant idea, when I realized that I have a garbage plant of my own: the plant where I dump all of my used teabags, loose tea leaves, and coffee grounds. It’s a liminal space of sorts, where teabags go to dry out before I gather up the nerve to open my incredibly moldy compost bin.
This potentially questionable practice is actually rooted in a bit of science. Coffee grounds can be a source of nitrogen for plants, which helps them grow strong green stems and leaves, as well as providing the plant with calcium and magnesium. Tea leaves help the soil to absorb and maintain moisture. Obviously piling teabags and coffee grounds on top of an unsuspecting snake plant may not be best practice, but why not give it a go and see if it saves you a trip to a nearby sink?
I suppose that my takeaway from this should be something along the lines of not being quick to judge- a tidbit to keep in mind going into forced social interactions with your distantly related strange third cousins at family holiday gatherings.