This tale of coffee grounds and a ghost is from Marlene Johnston of Orofino, Idaho USA.

Here's a good story you can share with your friends in the lunchroom sometime. Last fall I mixed up some seed starting mix in a bucket so I'd have it ready when I needed it and wouldn't have to dig through a foot of snow for sand. When I felt the time was right to start the delphiniums I brought the bucket in, added some perlite and planted about half the seeds I had. About an hour after I'd planted everything, my husband came in and asked why I had his bucket of COFFEE GROUNDS in the kitchen. Yep, you guessed it. He thought I had coffee grounds in my bucket and faithfully added to it all winter.

When I discovered what I did, I planted almost all the rest of the seeds in a sand, peat, perlite mix in aluminum loaf pans. Not having a greenhouse, I had to improvise a shelf across two chairbacks under a window in the kitchen. Since I'd planted loads of other things too, the shelf was rather crowded and not quite as long as the available window space. So....... I put a tray on the end of the shelf with about 1/3 of it extended beyond and put my delphinium seeds there.(6 pans - 150 or so seeds).

Now for the spooky part. The seeds started germinating nicely and each day I checked on how many new babies were "born" overnight. About 10 days later, as my hubby, a friend of his and I were chatting in the middle of the kitchen, the tray tilted and dumped all six seedling pans onto the floor! It was almost as if someone lifted the end of the tray. Do you think I have a plant ghost? I wonder.

Amazingly, some of the seeds in the coffee grounds are germinating although I don't recommend the stuff as a seed starting mix. I did manage to salvage about 20 of the seedlings that got dumped and others may decide to join them if they aren't too covered with soil. Time will tell.

So, do you believe in ghosts? I still haven't made up my mind on that question... but, sounds like Marlene has a well trained husband anyway!