Coffee shops share grounds for your garden coffee shops will be closed to foreigners

Some coffee shops bag up coffee grounds and put them out for customers. But, as reader Mike Ryan of Damascus points out, it's a hit-or-miss proposition. To assure a regular supply, Ryan approached the manager of a Tully's Coffee at his local Albertsons store, who agreed to save grounds for him.
Here's what he set up with the store

• He leaves a clean 5-gallon bucket with lid.
• They dump coffee grounds with filter in the bucket.
• He swaps out buckets several days a week. If he'll be on vacation, he leaves two buckets.
• "I thank them; they thank me," he says.
• At home, Ryan adds substantial amounts of coffee grounds, as well as hand-shredded filters, to his large compost pile, where the red worm population has multiplied exponentially.