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No, the title of this article is not a case of having fingers on the wrong keys. If you can’t identify it, perhaps you are not the aficionado or fan you thought you were. Here are a couple of hints, just in case:

• You are positive you need it first thing in the morning.

• You can’t think without it.

• Your mood is lousy until you have it.

• You grope and stumble without it.

• You will even push the dog out of the way to get to it.

Have you guessed what it is yet? I was a pretty good chemistry student in school but I didn’t retain enough of that information to identify  it either.

IT’S COFFEE! Or at least it represents the true coffee molecule; goodness knows what has been added to that to arrive at the drinkable potions we consume every day. Whatever the case, a huge percentage of the adult population craves a cuppa joe first thing in the morning.

Then we refill with more of that liquid energy mid-morning, and perhaps lunch includes even more rocket fuel to get us to at least the mid-afternoon slump. Having arrived there, a jolt of caffeine seems only logical so we can finish the work day with a reasonable amount of enthusiasm. The after-supper drink must surely be a nice warm brew to comfort you into the evening. Here’s hoping caffeine doesn’t keep you awake; the flavor of a good cup of coffee is almost worth the risk.

As it turns out, there is another benefit to consuming coffee: the grounds that are left after your pot is done. Who would have thought coffee grounds could be beneficial to your garden?

Contained in that wet mess in the used filter are nitrogen, magnesium and potassium, all food for the flora you’re so fussy about in the garden.

Do not, however, just go about willy-nilly dumping grounds on the ground, too much acid in there. (We won’t talk about what coffee might be doing to your stomach.) Temper the acidity either by mixing the grounds into the soil or combining with equal parts leaves and fresh grass. Stir it up like one of those mud pies you made when you were a kid. Add that mixture to an equal amount of soil from the planting area. Stir. Then you can use your new coffee-infused soil to plant or amend existing plantings, mounding the new soil up around the plant stems.

Well, now we have a new justification for all those pots of coffee we consume: gotta feed the garden!