Wimbledon gardeners reuse coffee grounds in sustainability bid

Sammy Gecsoyler
·2-min read
<span>Flowering verbena grow near court 8 on the second day of the 2024 Wimbledon championships.</span><span>Photograph: Glyn Kirk/AFP/Getty</span>
Flowering verbena grow near court 8 on the second day of the 2024 Wimbledon championships.Photograph: Glyn Kirk/AFP/Getty

Rain or shine – usually more of the former – Wimbledon’s stunning floral displays always manage to dazzle.

For those hoping to give their gardens an SW19-inspired transformation, the tournament’s secret has finally been revealed: coffee grounds from the staff room.

Wimbledon’s head gardener, Martyn Falconer, said leftovers from the staff coffee machine were composted in its lush gardens. There are also plans to give the flowers a broader feast of flavours. Falconer said his team was “looking to do more with food and drink” that is compostable and use it where possible.

His cross horticulture-culinary approach is part of a wider move to make the tournament more environmentally sustainable. Organisers have committed to reducing emissions and contributing to a “net gain” in wildlife in its operations by 2030.

Another move to achieve these goals is to try to ensure peat-free compost is used in Wimbledon’s flowers within the next two years. Peat compost is cultivated from peatland that contributes to carbon capture and storage and provides a habitat to some of the UK’s most threatened wildlife.

Environmental campaigners have long called for stricter laws to restore peatland. In 2022, the government announced plans to ban the sale of peat for use on private gardens and allotments in England by the end of 2024 but no legislation has yet been passed.

Falconer said the tournament was now “completely peat reduced” but will ramp up efforts this year to try to be rid of the carbon-loaded compost.

Falconer said: “We have about 100 modules and about 24 baskets that are peat-free and we are just trialling it to get the feed in and everything right so that the displays are as good.”

He also spoke about his team’s efforts to rid the ground’s gardens of invasive species, including box caterpillars. He said trees in the grounds were sprayed to kill off oak processionary moths. The fuzzy insect has hairs that can cause skin rashes, sore throats, breathing difficulties and eye problems if they fall on humans or pets.

Falconer said: “Oak processionary moth is one that you have to be mindful of because you’ve got a caterpillar with some pretty nasty hairs and if they drop they can cause problems. They’re dealt with in the early spring with some biological spray controls which involve nasty chemicals which we mist up into the trees.

“If you catch them early in the spring then they don’t get to that stage when they turn into a caterpillar.”

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