March 21, 2023 • 21 mins
In today's episode, Jim and Mary walk listeners through the simple steps for how to create their own powerful and amazing potting soil - without the need for peat moss! Using just 5 natural ingredients, they have been making this potting soil on their farm for the last 10+ years - and with stunning results for their hanging baskets, pots and container plantings. Listen in and grow your best container plants ever this year with your own homemade potting soil mix!
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(00:02):
Welcome to the Simple Garden Life podcast, a program dedicated to keeping the yard
of gardening simple, fun and alwaysrewarding. Now Here are your hosts,
Jim and Mary Competti. Hello andwelcome everybody to another episode of Simple Garden
Life. I'm your host, JimCompetti with my co host and wife Mary
Competti, and today we are goingto talk about potting toa more importantly making
(00:25):
your own potting toe, which issomething we've been doing and trying to perfect
for for many years. But moreimportantly Mary and I think this is key
doing it without using Pete moss,right, Pete moss is such a oh,
it's just a tough it's a toughtopic right now. I mean everybody,
you know, it's it's not arenewable resource. It's made over thousands
and thousands of years, and ittakes a lot of car there's a there's
(00:47):
a whole environment or reason not tobe using Pete moss. But the good
news is you don't have to writeand you can make you know, we're
really talking about dirt today and pottingsoil, and you know, being back
at the farm is really getting usgeared up, you know, for garden
Sea and planning flowers and pot ofplants. And you know, this is
such a great topic because it's soimportant. So many people ask us about
our recipe. I think, infact, we just did an interview what
(01:10):
about two weeks ago with the WashingtonPost about using our recipe without having Pete
Moss in it and how effective itis. And I always love it because
you know, this podcast is calledSimple Garden Life for a reason, because
we try to keep things simple andyou get a lot of scientific people involved
and what can work and what can'twork, And for us, it's always
been one thing, and it's calledexperience. It is and you know,
(01:32):
Pete Moss has been around for yearsand a lot of people have used it
over the years, and you know, there's several reasons why not to use
it, and we're here to tellyou today that you don't have to use
it. Not when it comes topotting so and we actually call this the
best potting so around because again experience, we've used it year in and year
out really good results. We'll getinto that before we get any farther.
(01:53):
I do want to remind everybody withyour questions, always feel free to email
us at the Farm at ow gardendot com. You can also sign up
to follow Simple Garden Life on anyof the major podcast apps. We're pretty
much on them. Sign up follow. We do a new podcast every two
weeks. It drops usually on Tuesday, and you know, we we have
(02:15):
enjoyed it. We love getting theemails when we get a lot of them
from people all around. And thiswas a topic that a lot of people
ask us to kind of cover,like how do you make your potting soil?
Is it better to make your ownpotting soil? Let's kind of go
down that road first, Mary,about making your own versus purchasing. First
of all, if you can't makeyour own, if it's not there are
a lot of good potting soils onthe market. We're not here to change
(02:38):
that out, but they can bepretty expensive. Yeah, they're very expensive,
and depending on how many pot ofplants do you actually plant in a
year's time, it can really addup. And one of the best ways
to save money and grow the bestpot of plants around is to make your
own potting soil at home. Yeah, and a lot of the ingredients is
will get into today. You're goingto find out that you know, you
can actually make them for free orfind them for free. Some you have
(02:59):
to purchase. But at the endof the day, well, we've found
more than anything else beyond the costsavings, and you're talking about two people
that probably pop more plants than weever should we use this everywhere? But
beyond that, I think for us, we've found that it's just that much
better than commercial mixes because there's somuch powerboat into this potting soil. Um
(03:23):
it's loose, it has all ofthe things that you need into good potting
soil, and you can just makeit right at home, right and when
we're talking about potting soil, thisis to grow vegetables, flowers, herbs,
or hanging baskets when you make yourown absolutely and you know, not
just that. A lot of people, you know, blend this into their
raised beds if they want to putsome extra soil in it. And at
(03:43):
the end of the year, withall that potting so ours all goes right
back into our compost, which you'llsee as a major ingredient in our potting
soil. But it's it's renewable,recyclable, and very easy to keep,
extremely powerful. So there's there's littledoubt that when you talk about potting plants
or anything like that. That makingyour own for us has always just been
(04:04):
kind of a I don't want tosay, a badge of honor, but
we're really proud of it because there'snothing like making your own soil, then
putting your own plants in and watchingsomething grow and maybe it's a vegetable it
produces. Maybe if it's flowers,they're they're big and bright and beautiful.
But more importantly, it's a reallyquality, good soil, right. And
you know a lot of those commercialproducts that you could buy have additives in
(04:24):
the potting soil and you really don'tknow what's actually in it. So I
think that's a big point here.It's like, when you make it yourself,
you know what's in your soil,you know what you grow. We
talk about that all the time,and you bring up another good point is,
especially especially when you're growing vegetables inthose pots. It's one thing to
say you're growing flowers and you're notgoing to consume them, but I always
encourage people to think full circle.You know, you may not be growing
(04:48):
vegetables in that potted flower this year, but that ends up in your compost
spin and if there's materials in itthen aren't natural. They're going to go
through your compost and they're going tobe an extra. So for it's always
been peace of mind, make ourown. We know it's one hundred percent
organic, we know it's in weknow what's in it, we know what
we can put in it, weknow we can put in our compost piles,
(05:08):
and we go from there, rightAnd you know a lot of those
bags have added fertilizers, fungicides,and other additives that are far from organic.
And even if you're not an organicgardener, and that's okay, just
remember what you're eating also absorbs thosenutrients from from the soil and the additives
from the soil. It does,so, okay, I'll tell you what
we're going to do right now.Let's we normally get to our question a
(05:30):
little bit later, but I kindof want to get to our question of
the week right now because it leadsinto this potting soil. And I got
to tell you, I think itcomes from Norman from Somerville, South Carolina,
which is hilarious because Mary and Ilove to go to Somerville. It's
a wonderful place. It is awonderful place. So we saw this and
then it was right on to Qand we saw them like, we've got
to use this as our question becauseactually it's an incredibly good question. Mary,
(05:55):
go ahead and read it here andthen we'll answer it. Sure.
This is Norman Davis from Somerville,South Caroline. Norman asks, whenever I
purchase potting soil, there always seemsto be styrofoam or something that looks like
it in my soil. Is itorganic? Or can I use that potting
soil to grow vegetables and containers?I love it, and Norman, it's
a great question. We get ita lot. I remember we received emails
(06:18):
a few years ago when we weretalking about our potting soil recipe and they're
like, well, it's not organicbecause you have that styrofoam in your soil.
I see the picture. So actually, what that is is actually a
one hundred percent organic substance. It'sper light and it is actually volcanic glass
(06:38):
that they simply heat up and theyexplode it, and it's basically like popcorn
right exactly. They heat it upto like thirteen hundred degrees and it expands
thirteen times of size. That itoriginally was, and it's a great filler
in soil because it allows the mixtureto expand. It allows the soil to
be light and airy, and allowswater and roots to be able to develop.
(06:59):
It. Yeah, it really loosensthat soil and lets them move.
And more important, and you saidit best, it lightens the soil.
So think about potted plants hanging baskets. You can't put heavy garden soil and
then first of all, you're gonnacrack all your pots. Second of all,
you can't move and you're gonna crackyour back. And but more importantly,
when it's heavy soil for flowers orvegetables, you want those roots to
(07:20):
be able to grow quick. Sowhat perlite does in those soils, you
said it lightens it up. Itkeeps it a little bit easier, but
it also helps the water channels itmakes it allows the water to get through.
Perlite is magical. And here's thebest part of all. It never
goes away. It does not rot, It does not go away. So
when you buy perlite and you putin your soil and it ends up in
(07:41):
your compost spin, it's just goingto be there to continue to build soil.
No, it doesn't at all,and it is one hundred percent organic
and it's not styrofoam norm and youcan rest ashore. We get that question
a lot, so it's it's agreat question, and that's why we included
it today. But it's one ofthe key ingredients in our potting soil mix.
But I want to go one stepfurther. We use per light in
(08:05):
our raised beds in other areas tohelp loosen thick soil. And it's great
because we said it doesn't break downright, and like you said, it
allows the route to expand and developand grow strong, allows the water to
come through. So one of thosegreat things to have in our garden at
all times, potting soil or thegarden itself. Well, I heard the
little symbol right there, so Ithink that's time for an ad break.
(08:26):
We apparently sometimes run a little long, so we get some warning, so
we'll take a very quick ad break. We're going to be back. We're
going to discuss exactly what should goin your potting soil, right down to
the ingredients and what each one is, and we'll be right back after this,
all right, and we are backtalking about how to make your homemade
(08:46):
potting soil. Five ingredients. That'swhat we talk about all the time.
It's five natural ingredients. And youknow we're going to go through I think
Mary, you're going to read offthe actual recipe and what the ratios are.
Look, I just want to reallysay this. You can make as
much or as little as you needof this. Just use the ratios and
keep them the same or are closeto the same. I always talk about
(09:09):
gardening. It's not baking. It'scooking. So when you cook, you
can throw a little more hot pepper, and if you like that, you
can throw when you bake. Youcan't get away with that. But don't
get so caught up with the exactLike I think, I'm a little will
If you get close to this ratio, you're going to have a wonderful potting.
Someone mix is going to work.So I think a lot of gardeners
get scared off of all the scientificterms and exact measurements. So we're here
(09:33):
to tell you that. You know, once we give you this recipe,
you can tweak it, just likeyou said, just like in a cooking
recipe, make it your own.Well, I'm glad you said that,
because you know This is a recipethat we have kind of honed over the
last ten to eleven years, andreally in the last few years we've settled
in on this exact formula. AndI use the word exact, and I
should, but the key is thisseems to be a really good ratio for
(09:58):
us that makes a light, loosebut extremely powerful soil. So again,
you can be a little off onone or the other if you have to
be, but just try to beclose to this. We're going to do
this in cups, so we're goingto just show you like it's basically,
you know, like like you're baking. So if you're going to make it
up, it's six cups of thisor this, and we'll get into the
recipe right now. But again,just keep those ratios the same. If
(10:20):
you've got to make a lot ofit, use six five gallon buckets and
then move, you know, justmake the ratios equal. So, Mary,
I think let's go through the ingredientsfirst and how much of each,
and then we'll get into specifics.It's five ingredients. It is five ingredients,
and this is our oral garden homemadepotting soil recipes. I'm used doing
recipes, not usually in gardening,but we'll go for a time. I
(10:41):
get to cook. Ye. Sothe first thing that you're going to want
to use is compost. Compost isthe key here. You're gonna use six
cups of compost and then pulverized topsoil six cups of that as well,
one to one ratio. Yeah,that's the big part of this soil mix.
So six cups of composts and sixcups of a soil of pulveroi.
It's a loose soil weet. We'llget into that a little bit. And
(11:01):
then what else do we put inthat? Then we do two cups of
each of worm castings, spent coffeegrounds, and the per light that we
talked about earlier. So it's areally simple formula. It's six six two
two two and it's of each ofthose ingredients. So six of the compost,
six cups of pulfroy soil, andthen two cups each of coffee grounds,
(11:24):
spent coffee grounds, per light,and then we're the worm casting.
So let's kind of get into whyand what. So let's talk about the
compost. First. We talk aboutcompost. I think every single podcast it's
amazing. It's black gold. Itis black gold. And the reason it's
black gold is it has every nutrientplant's need in the right amounts and most
(11:46):
importantly, super easy to absorb thosenutrients into the plant. So compost is
by far the key. Now,if you have a compost pile at home,
sifted a little bit to get alittle bit finer compost for your potting
soil. You don't want big chunksof half decayed things if it's animals.
Um So, if you're purchasing it, and we'll have links on this on
this podcast, on the article onSimple Garden Life. Excuse me for the
(12:09):
new article, um that that arethere if you have to purchase these things.
But either way, you just wanta good compost around it, you
know, a whole compost. Ifyou grow your own nets, fine or
make your own excuse me, that'sthat's more than fine. But you want
it to be seeing sure it's acompleted compost pile as well. Yeah,
not not fresh or anything like that. It's just got to be done and
finished compost. So that's what itstarts with. And like I said,
(12:31):
compost is the king. It's goteverything in it, It's got everything you
need. And now we go tothe Paul roys topsil, which we get
a lot of questions about this,so I want to explain what this is.
If you go into your local gardencenter, a lot of times they'll
have gardener soil, uh, andit's not bulk, it's in bag.
It might be called top soil,Paul, you know, loose, it
might be called garden soil. Allwe're talking about here is a base soil
(12:54):
that's that's loose, not clay.Not going out to your garden and picking
up a shovelful of it. Youwant to get really good soil. Mix
it may you can usually find itbagged. It's fairly cheap too, but
just make sure it's a decent soiland it's naturally they don't have anything in
it, right. And sometimes they'realso called filtered soil. Yeah, filtered
soil. A lot of places haveit in bulk. You can buy it
(13:16):
in bulk if you're gonna make aton of it. Bags are kind of
easy when you're mixing it up.That's all you really want here. So
a six six ratio right there,six cups of composts and six cups of
soil. So the way we makeours, we use a wheelbarrel. It's
just really really easy, so youknow you're going to throw that in.
We make a little bit bigger.We do actually six five gallon buckets and
(13:37):
six five gall but again the ratiojust keep it same. So you're gonna
put six of six parts of compostand six equal parts of the soil in
first, and then we get tothe second things. We talked about perlite.
We talked about what it does forsoil. So two cups of that,
that's you're gonna mix that in andyou're gonna mix it all up,
and what that's gonna do. It'sgoing to start to help some of that
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top soil which is a little heavierand the compost which is a little lighter.
It's going to keep it all light. It's going to keep it from
packing together, and that's what youwant in a good potting soil. And
one thing to mention too about pelight. It also has a neutral pH level.
Oh it's it's huge because that's whatyou know. It's not going to
adjust anything, it's not going tochange things out, just like compost us.
Finished composts is the same way yoursoil can be a little bit different.
(14:20):
That's going to be okay, Butthose those other ingredients are really good.
So now you've got that in,it's a little loose, it's a
little bit better. And what arewe going to kick in next? Oh,
our favorite worm castings. It's right, two cups of worm castings.
I cannot say it enough. Getworm castings and have them on hand for
everything. We put them on topof our hanging baskets, we put them
(14:41):
in every planning hole. We usethem to make a tea, to water
our plants, to fertilize our plants. Yeah, I cannot tell you how
many emails we get every single weekthat says, oh, my gosh,
I use worm castings last year forthe first time. I'm so amazed.
I never get an email that says, ah, these this didn't work for
me. They really do work,and in potting soil they are a huge
(15:01):
benefit. You have to be carefultoo, when you're buying worm castings.
You have to make sure that you'rebuying one hundred percent worm castings. There's
a lot of mixes out there thatthe bags will say worm castings, but
they have a lot of additives toit or ground material though, So you
really want to be careful what youpurchase. Yeah, and you can usually
find them local. We have them. In fact, if you go to
any of our sites, Old WorldGarden Farms, Good, this is my
(15:22):
garden. Or you go to SimpleGarden Light, we have a product's page
on there. Click on it.We have links there that you can buy
them online, or you can atleast see what it is and go to
your local store. But Mary,you said it best one hundred percent worm
castings, you've got to have that. If you get the fillers, they're
not going to have the same power. I think the biggest thing about the
wormcastings adding to your potting soil isthat it's a slow release fertilizer that your
(15:45):
plants are going to benefit from monthswell one hundred percent. And it also
helps absorb water and keep it intoplants, which is going to help you
water less when you're talking about pottedplants. And it lightens the soil as
well. So it's that triple hitter, you know, it's it's just it's
it's the crown excuse me of reallywhat you need to put in that soil.
So when people ask us, Iknow, when we did the interview
with watching puts they ask us like, what's taking the place of Pete moss.
(16:07):
I said, well, compost isthe big key because it's really lighten
it up. But you get thoseworm castings in there, and it really
adds power that pete moss doesn't havethat power. Pete moss is just a
lightner and it doesn't have the kindof stuff so it holds some moisture in.
But this is where you're getting thegreat potting soil. When you start
mixing that compost with the worm castings, and when you when you go to
purchase worm castings, you know you'regoing to get something that looks like little
(16:30):
tiny pellets. Yeah, so youknow, just be aware that you know
that's what you're looking for exactly exactly. So now we have four of the
five ingredients. We put six cupsof top or of pulverized soil, and
we put six cups of composts.We put two cups of pearl light in,
and we put two cups of wormcastings. And that leaves the last
part of it, which people alwaysask us, like, why are you
doing this? It's it's the spentcoffee grounds rights the coffee grounds that you
(16:53):
are finished with in the morning andyou're about ready to either put in your
composts or unfortunately throw away, butuse those as part of you're potting soil.
Yeah, you know, we saythis every time we talk about coffee
grounds. You can't use fresh.We get some non coffee drinkers it's like,
why don't drink coffee? And I'mlike, you've got to have somebody
saving for you because fresh coffee isvery acidic, and when it goes through
(17:14):
that filtering process the water of makingcoffee, it loses that acidity and becomes
very good. If you use fresh, you're gonna you're gonna mess up that
pH of the soil. So spendcoffee grounds and again two cups and you
mix that all in. So whatdo the coffee grounds do. Well,
Again, they're going to help holdsome moisture in. They're gonna give some
trace nutrients in there, which isfabulous. I mean you're getting you know,
(17:37):
nitrogen, you're getting all the othertrace elements, and again in an
easily absorbed way, and they're goingto get to those plants. So it's
huge to use all of those things. Can you leave one out? Yeah?
You can not. Really the compostbecause it's such a major part.
But you put those five together andI'm telling you you will have the best
potting soil you've ever had. Right, And I know this isn't the question
(18:00):
the week, and I'm kind ofjumping the gun here, but we get
this question a lot, and I'mjust going to throw it out there right
now. Can you use spent coffeegrounds that have been flavored like hazel nut
or all the different flavors? Great, great point, because I've probably answered
a hundred questions. I'm glad youbrought that up. All right, So
here's our take on it. There'sa lot of natural flavors that are used,
and if you look on it,it's one naturally flavored. There's no
(18:25):
problem. In my mind, there'sno problem with it. You get into,
you know, like cake ups andall the other things where it's all
kinds of art. I just myfeeling is if I'm growing something, I
want to know what's in it,and I don't know what's in that,
and I don't know what kind ofchemical they use to make that flavor.
So I always say, no,don't you. So we'll stay away from
the artificial flavored coffees. But naturalflavored coffees are good to go. Yeah,
(18:47):
I just think you're safe that way. And we talk about it all
the time, and we have ourstandard coffee, so we don't really know.
Boring, nothing to worry about.That's right, Well I'm boring or
else. At least it gets usoff to a good start boring. I'm
probably not very boring if I don'tget that cup. So so anyway,
mix these together. People ask howlong does it last? It's it's indefinite.
(19:07):
I mean, you got you gotthat in there. As long as
it's not wet and leaching out.You can use that soil if you make
too much extra. But fantastic forpotted plants. It really is fun to
kind of make your own potting soiland realize that you're controlling. I always
said, like when we grow ourown pants from seed, and then we
plan our own flower pots and weplant our own garden, and at the
end of the year you're putting whatyou made into your own compost pile.
(19:29):
It is an unbelievable failing. Youknow you did it all right, and
you know it's just a great excuseto play in the dirt again. It
is it is It is so okay, So let's kind of wrap this up
and talk about you know what wesaid, so again, Pete Moss,
you just don't need it to makea really quality potting soil. And to
do that this recipe that we havetoday, which is five ingredients again you
know, pulverized soil, compost,you're talking about, coffee grounds, spent
(19:53):
the spent variety, perlite, andworm castings, those five together in that
mix. And again go to SimpleGarden Life. This will be the article
of the week. And if it'snot up there, all you gotta do
is just put in the search barright there best potting soil or potting soil,
it's going to come up. Andagain on all of our sites.
(20:14):
I always want to tell that peoplethere's a search bar on every site and
it's a really good search bar.Put in any topic in there and you're
going to find our articles on it, and it's really helpful. Absolutely,
it's a great way to find theinformation that even if it's something we haven't
yet covered, you can definitely searchthose websites and get what you need.
That's right. So I think thatabout does it get out there make your
own potting soil try it, justyou know what, do what we used
(20:37):
to do and have a little funwith it. We would plant some commercial
potting soil and we would do ours, and we would try a couple of
mixes and we try ours. Wealways came back to, wow, this
is I think the final tweak forus was adding a little more worm castings
that really put more energy in it. But have fun with it, have
fun with guardening. That's what it'sall about, right Mary, Absolutely,
I think it's time. It's time. Well, happy spring everyone, and
remember whatever you do, find thefun and gardening and grow something beautiful.
(21:00):
So long everyone. We hope you'veenjoyed this episode. Subscribe to the Simple
Garden podcast on iTunes, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or most of your favorite
podcast apps. You can also headover to simplegardenlife dot com where you can
listen and read all of the shownotes to every episode. And if you
have any questions, any ideas forshow topics, or if you want to
share your favorite garden tip, emailus at the farm at owgarden dot com.
(21:25):
Until next time, Thanks everyone,
Welcome to the Simple Garden Life podcast, a program dedicated to keeping the yard
of gardening simple, fun and alwaysrewarding. Now Here are your hosts,
Jim and Mary Competti. Hello andwelcome everybody to another episode of Simple Garden
Life. I'm your host, JimCompetti with my co host and wife Mary
Competti, and today we are goingto talk about potting toa more importantly making
(00:25):
your own potting toe, which issomething we've been doing and trying to perfect
for for many years. But moreimportantly Mary and I think this is key
doing it without using Pete moss,right, Pete moss is such a oh,
it's just a tough it's a toughtopic right now. I mean everybody,
you know, it's it's not arenewable resource. It's made over thousands
and thousands of years, and ittakes a lot of car there's a there's
(00:47):
a whole environment or reason not tobe using Pete moss. But the good
news is you don't have to writeand you can make you know, we're
really talking about dirt today and pottingsoil, and you know, being back
at the farm is really getting usgeared up, you know, for garden
Sea and planning flowers and pot ofplants. And you know, this is
such a great topic because it's soimportant. So many people ask us about
our recipe. I think, infact, we just did an interview what
(01:10):
about two weeks ago with the WashingtonPost about using our recipe without having Pete
Moss in it and how effective itis. And I always love it because
you know, this podcast is calledSimple Garden Life for a reason, because
we try to keep things simple andyou get a lot of scientific people involved
and what can work and what can'twork, And for us, it's always
been one thing, and it's calledexperience. It is and you know,
(01:32):
Pete Moss has been around for yearsand a lot of people have used it
over the years, and you know, there's several reasons why not to use
it, and we're here to tellyou today that you don't have to use
it. Not when it comes topotting so and we actually call this the
best potting so around because again experience, we've used it year in and year
out really good results. We'll getinto that before we get any farther.
(01:53):
I do want to remind everybody withyour questions, always feel free to email
us at the Farm at ow gardendot com. You can also sign up
to follow Simple Garden Life on anyof the major podcast apps. We're pretty
much on them. Sign up follow. We do a new podcast every two
weeks. It drops usually on Tuesday, and you know, we we have
(02:15):
enjoyed it. We love getting theemails when we get a lot of them
from people all around. And thiswas a topic that a lot of people
ask us to kind of cover,like how do you make your potting soil?
Is it better to make your ownpotting soil? Let's kind of go
down that road first, Mary,about making your own versus purchasing. First
of all, if you can't makeyour own, if it's not there are
a lot of good potting soils onthe market. We're not here to change
(02:38):
that out, but they can bepretty expensive. Yeah, they're very expensive,
and depending on how many pot ofplants do you actually plant in a
year's time, it can really addup. And one of the best ways
to save money and grow the bestpot of plants around is to make your
own potting soil at home. Yeah, and a lot of the ingredients is
will get into today. You're goingto find out that you know, you
can actually make them for free orfind them for free. Some you have
(02:59):
to purchase. But at the endof the day, well, we've found
more than anything else beyond the costsavings, and you're talking about two people
that probably pop more plants than weever should we use this everywhere? But
beyond that, I think for us, we've found that it's just that much
better than commercial mixes because there's somuch powerboat into this potting soil. Um
(03:23):
it's loose, it has all ofthe things that you need into good potting
soil, and you can just makeit right at home, right and when
we're talking about potting soil, thisis to grow vegetables, flowers, herbs,
or hanging baskets when you make yourown absolutely and you know, not
just that. A lot of people, you know, blend this into their
raised beds if they want to putsome extra soil in it. And at
(03:43):
the end of the year, withall that potting so ours all goes right
back into our compost, which you'llsee as a major ingredient in our potting
soil. But it's it's renewable,recyclable, and very easy to keep,
extremely powerful. So there's there's littledoubt that when you talk about potting plants
or anything like that. That makingyour own for us has always just been
(04:04):
kind of a I don't want tosay, a badge of honor, but
we're really proud of it because there'snothing like making your own soil, then
putting your own plants in and watchingsomething grow and maybe it's a vegetable it
produces. Maybe if it's flowers,they're they're big and bright and beautiful.
But more importantly, it's a reallyquality, good soil, right. And
you know a lot of those commercialproducts that you could buy have additives in
(04:24):
the potting soil and you really don'tknow what's actually in it. So I
think that's a big point here.It's like, when you make it yourself,
you know what's in your soil,you know what you grow. We
talk about that all the time,and you bring up another good point is,
especially especially when you're growing vegetables inthose pots. It's one thing to
say you're growing flowers and you're notgoing to consume them, but I always
encourage people to think full circle.You know, you may not be growing
(04:48):
vegetables in that potted flower this year, but that ends up in your compost
spin and if there's materials in itthen aren't natural. They're going to go
through your compost and they're going tobe an extra. So for it's always
been peace of mind, make ourown. We know it's one hundred percent
organic, we know it's in weknow what's in it, we know what
we can put in it, weknow we can put in our compost piles,
(05:08):
and we go from there, rightAnd you know a lot of those
bags have added fertilizers, fungicides,and other additives that are far from organic.
And even if you're not an organicgardener, and that's okay, just
remember what you're eating also absorbs thosenutrients from from the soil and the additives
from the soil. It does,so, okay, I'll tell you what
we're going to do right now.Let's we normally get to our question a
(05:30):
little bit later, but I kindof want to get to our question of
the week right now because it leadsinto this potting soil. And I got
to tell you, I think itcomes from Norman from Somerville, South Carolina,
which is hilarious because Mary and Ilove to go to Somerville. It's
a wonderful place. It is awonderful place. So we saw this and
then it was right on to Qand we saw them like, we've got
to use this as our question becauseactually it's an incredibly good question. Mary,
(05:55):
go ahead and read it here andthen we'll answer it. Sure.
This is Norman Davis from Somerville,South Caroline. Norman asks, whenever I
purchase potting soil, there always seemsto be styrofoam or something that looks like
it in my soil. Is itorganic? Or can I use that potting
soil to grow vegetables and containers?I love it, and Norman, it's
a great question. We get ita lot. I remember we received emails
(06:18):
a few years ago when we weretalking about our potting soil recipe and they're
like, well, it's not organicbecause you have that styrofoam in your soil.
I see the picture. So actually, what that is is actually a
one hundred percent organic substance. It'sper light and it is actually volcanic glass
(06:38):
that they simply heat up and theyexplode it, and it's basically like popcorn
right exactly. They heat it upto like thirteen hundred degrees and it expands
thirteen times of size. That itoriginally was, and it's a great filler
in soil because it allows the mixtureto expand. It allows the soil to
be light and airy, and allowswater and roots to be able to develop.
(06:59):
It. Yeah, it really loosensthat soil and lets them move.
And more important, and you saidit best, it lightens the soil.
So think about potted plants hanging baskets. You can't put heavy garden soil and
then first of all, you're gonnacrack all your pots. Second of all,
you can't move and you're gonna crackyour back. And but more importantly,
when it's heavy soil for flowers orvegetables, you want those roots to
(07:20):
be able to grow quick. Sowhat perlite does in those soils, you
said it lightens it up. Itkeeps it a little bit easier, but
it also helps the water channels itmakes it allows the water to get through.
Perlite is magical. And here's thebest part of all. It never
goes away. It does not rot, It does not go away. So
when you buy perlite and you putin your soil and it ends up in
(07:41):
your compost spin, it's just goingto be there to continue to build soil.
No, it doesn't at all,and it is one hundred percent organic
and it's not styrofoam norm and youcan rest ashore. We get that question
a lot, so it's it's agreat question, and that's why we included
it today. But it's one ofthe key ingredients in our potting soil mix.
But I want to go one stepfurther. We use per light in
(08:05):
our raised beds in other areas tohelp loosen thick soil. And it's great
because we said it doesn't break downright, and like you said, it
allows the route to expand and developand grow strong, allows the water to
come through. So one of thosegreat things to have in our garden at
all times, potting soil or thegarden itself. Well, I heard the
little symbol right there, so Ithink that's time for an ad break.
(08:26):
We apparently sometimes run a little long, so we get some warning, so
we'll take a very quick ad break. We're going to be back. We're
going to discuss exactly what should goin your potting soil, right down to
the ingredients and what each one is, and we'll be right back after this,
all right, and we are backtalking about how to make your homemade
(08:46):
potting soil. Five ingredients. That'swhat we talk about all the time.
It's five natural ingredients. And youknow we're going to go through I think
Mary, you're going to read offthe actual recipe and what the ratios are.
Look, I just want to reallysay this. You can make as
much or as little as you needof this. Just use the ratios and
keep them the same or are closeto the same. I always talk about
(09:09):
gardening. It's not baking. It'scooking. So when you cook, you
can throw a little more hot pepper, and if you like that, you
can throw when you bake. Youcan't get away with that. But don't
get so caught up with the exactLike I think, I'm a little will
If you get close to this ratio, you're going to have a wonderful potting.
Someone mix is going to work.So I think a lot of gardeners
get scared off of all the scientificterms and exact measurements. So we're here
(09:33):
to tell you that. You know, once we give you this recipe,
you can tweak it, just likeyou said, just like in a cooking
recipe, make it your own.Well, I'm glad you said that,
because you know This is a recipethat we have kind of honed over the
last ten to eleven years, andreally in the last few years we've settled
in on this exact formula. AndI use the word exact, and I
should, but the key is thisseems to be a really good ratio for
(09:58):
us that makes a light, loosebut extremely powerful soil. So again,
you can be a little off onone or the other if you have to
be, but just try to beclose to this. We're going to do
this in cups, so we're goingto just show you like it's basically,
you know, like like you're baking. So if you're going to make it
up, it's six cups of thisor this, and we'll get into the
recipe right now. But again,just keep those ratios the same. If
(10:20):
you've got to make a lot ofit, use six five gallon buckets and
then move, you know, justmake the ratios equal. So, Mary,
I think let's go through the ingredientsfirst and how much of each,
and then we'll get into specifics.It's five ingredients. It is five ingredients,
and this is our oral garden homemadepotting soil recipes. I'm used doing
recipes, not usually in gardening,but we'll go for a time. I
(10:41):
get to cook. Ye. Sothe first thing that you're going to want
to use is compost. Compost isthe key here. You're gonna use six
cups of compost and then pulverized topsoil six cups of that as well,
one to one ratio. Yeah,that's the big part of this soil mix.
So six cups of composts and sixcups of a soil of pulveroi.
It's a loose soil weet. We'llget into that a little bit. And
(11:01):
then what else do we put inthat? Then we do two cups of
each of worm castings, spent coffeegrounds, and the per light that we
talked about earlier. So it's areally simple formula. It's six six two
two two and it's of each ofthose ingredients. So six of the compost,
six cups of pulfroy soil, andthen two cups each of coffee grounds,
(11:24):
spent coffee grounds, per light,and then we're the worm casting.
So let's kind of get into whyand what. So let's talk about the
compost. First. We talk aboutcompost. I think every single podcast it's
amazing. It's black gold. Itis black gold. And the reason it's
black gold is it has every nutrientplant's need in the right amounts and most
(11:46):
importantly, super easy to absorb thosenutrients into the plant. So compost is
by far the key. Now,if you have a compost pile at home,
sifted a little bit to get alittle bit finer compost for your potting
soil. You don't want big chunksof half decayed things if it's animals.
Um So, if you're purchasing it, and we'll have links on this on
this podcast, on the article onSimple Garden Life. Excuse me for the
(12:09):
new article, um that that arethere if you have to purchase these things.
But either way, you just wanta good compost around it, you
know, a whole compost. Ifyou grow your own nets, fine or
make your own excuse me, that'sthat's more than fine. But you want
it to be seeing sure it's acompleted compost pile as well. Yeah,
not not fresh or anything like that. It's just got to be done and
finished compost. So that's what itstarts with. And like I said,
(12:31):
compost is the king. It's goteverything in it, It's got everything you
need. And now we go tothe Paul roys topsil, which we get
a lot of questions about this,so I want to explain what this is.
If you go into your local gardencenter, a lot of times they'll
have gardener soil, uh, andit's not bulk, it's in bag.
It might be called top soil,Paul, you know, loose, it
might be called garden soil. Allwe're talking about here is a base soil
(12:54):
that's that's loose, not clay.Not going out to your garden and picking
up a shovelful of it. Youwant to get really good soil. Mix
it may you can usually find itbagged. It's fairly cheap too, but
just make sure it's a decent soiland it's naturally they don't have anything in
it, right. And sometimes they'realso called filtered soil. Yeah, filtered
soil. A lot of places haveit in bulk. You can buy it
(13:16):
in bulk if you're gonna make aton of it. Bags are kind of
easy when you're mixing it up.That's all you really want here. So
a six six ratio right there,six cups of composts and six cups of
soil. So the way we makeours, we use a wheelbarrel. It's
just really really easy, so youknow you're going to throw that in.
We make a little bit bigger.We do actually six five gallon buckets and
(13:37):
six five gall but again the ratiojust keep it same. So you're gonna
put six of six parts of compostand six equal parts of the soil in
first, and then we get tothe second things. We talked about perlite.
We talked about what it does forsoil. So two cups of that,
that's you're gonna mix that in andyou're gonna mix it all up,
and what that's gonna do. It'sgoing to start to help some of that
(13:58):
top soil which is a little heavierand the compost which is a little lighter.
It's going to keep it all light. It's going to keep it from
packing together, and that's what youwant in a good potting soil. And
one thing to mention too about pelight. It also has a neutral pH level.
Oh it's it's huge because that's whatyou know. It's not going to
adjust anything, it's not going tochange things out, just like compost us.
Finished composts is the same way yoursoil can be a little bit different.
(14:20):
That's going to be okay, Butthose those other ingredients are really good.
So now you've got that in,it's a little loose, it's a
little bit better. And what arewe going to kick in next? Oh,
our favorite worm castings. It's right, two cups of worm castings.
I cannot say it enough. Getworm castings and have them on hand for
everything. We put them on topof our hanging baskets, we put them
(14:41):
in every planning hole. We usethem to make a tea, to water
our plants, to fertilize our plants. Yeah, I cannot tell you how
many emails we get every single weekthat says, oh, my gosh,
I use worm castings last year forthe first time. I'm so amazed.
I never get an email that says, ah, these this didn't work for
me. They really do work,and in potting soil they are a huge
(15:01):
benefit. You have to be carefultoo, when you're buying worm castings.
You have to make sure that you'rebuying one hundred percent worm castings. There's
a lot of mixes out there thatthe bags will say worm castings, but
they have a lot of additives toit or ground material though, So you
really want to be careful what youpurchase. Yeah, and you can usually
find them local. We have them. In fact, if you go to
any of our sites, Old WorldGarden Farms, Good, this is my
(15:22):
garden. Or you go to SimpleGarden Light, we have a product's page
on there. Click on it.We have links there that you can buy
them online, or you can atleast see what it is and go to
your local store. But Mary,you said it best one hundred percent worm
castings, you've got to have that. If you get the fillers, they're
not going to have the same power. I think the biggest thing about the
wormcastings adding to your potting soil isthat it's a slow release fertilizer that your
(15:45):
plants are going to benefit from monthswell one hundred percent. And it also
helps absorb water and keep it intoplants, which is going to help you
water less when you're talking about pottedplants. And it lightens the soil as
well. So it's that triple hitter, you know, it's it's just it's
it's the crown excuse me of reallywhat you need to put in that soil.
So when people ask us, Iknow, when we did the interview
with watching puts they ask us like, what's taking the place of Pete moss.
(16:07):
I said, well, compost isthe big key because it's really lighten
it up. But you get thoseworm castings in there, and it really
adds power that pete moss doesn't havethat power. Pete moss is just a
lightner and it doesn't have the kindof stuff so it holds some moisture in.
But this is where you're getting thegreat potting soil. When you start
mixing that compost with the worm castings, and when you when you go to
purchase worm castings, you know you'regoing to get something that looks like little
(16:30):
tiny pellets. Yeah, so youknow, just be aware that you know
that's what you're looking for exactly exactly. So now we have four of the
five ingredients. We put six cupsof top or of pulverized soil, and
we put six cups of composts.We put two cups of pearl light in,
and we put two cups of wormcastings. And that leaves the last
part of it, which people alwaysask us, like, why are you
doing this? It's it's the spentcoffee grounds rights the coffee grounds that you
(16:53):
are finished with in the morning andyou're about ready to either put in your
composts or unfortunately throw away, butuse those as part of you're potting soil.
Yeah, you know, we saythis every time we talk about coffee
grounds. You can't use fresh.We get some non coffee drinkers it's like,
why don't drink coffee? And I'mlike, you've got to have somebody
saving for you because fresh coffee isvery acidic, and when it goes through
(17:14):
that filtering process the water of makingcoffee, it loses that acidity and becomes
very good. If you use fresh, you're gonna you're gonna mess up that
pH of the soil. So spendcoffee grounds and again two cups and you
mix that all in. So whatdo the coffee grounds do. Well,
Again, they're going to help holdsome moisture in. They're gonna give some
trace nutrients in there, which isfabulous. I mean you're getting you know,
(17:37):
nitrogen, you're getting all the othertrace elements, and again in an
easily absorbed way, and they're goingto get to those plants. So it's
huge to use all of those things. Can you leave one out? Yeah?
You can not. Really the compostbecause it's such a major part.
But you put those five together andI'm telling you you will have the best
potting soil you've ever had. Right, And I know this isn't the question
(18:00):
the week, and I'm kind ofjumping the gun here, but we get
this question a lot, and I'mjust going to throw it out there right
now. Can you use spent coffeegrounds that have been flavored like hazel nut
or all the different flavors? Great, great point, because I've probably answered
a hundred questions. I'm glad youbrought that up. All right, So
here's our take on it. There'sa lot of natural flavors that are used,
and if you look on it,it's one naturally flavored. There's no
(18:25):
problem. In my mind, there'sno problem with it. You get into,
you know, like cake ups andall the other things where it's all
kinds of art. I just myfeeling is if I'm growing something, I
want to know what's in it,and I don't know what's in that,
and I don't know what kind ofchemical they use to make that flavor.
So I always say, no,don't you. So we'll stay away from
the artificial flavored coffees. But naturalflavored coffees are good to go. Yeah,
(18:47):
I just think you're safe that way. And we talk about it all
the time, and we have ourstandard coffee, so we don't really know.
Boring, nothing to worry about.That's right, Well I'm boring or
else. At least it gets usoff to a good start boring. I'm
probably not very boring if I don'tget that cup. So so anyway,
mix these together. People ask howlong does it last? It's it's indefinite.
(19:07):
I mean, you got you gotthat in there. As long as
it's not wet and leaching out.You can use that soil if you make
too much extra. But fantastic forpotted plants. It really is fun to
kind of make your own potting soiland realize that you're controlling. I always
said, like when we grow ourown pants from seed, and then we
plan our own flower pots and weplant our own garden, and at the
end of the year you're putting whatyou made into your own compost pile.
(19:29):
It is an unbelievable failing. Youknow you did it all right, and
you know it's just a great excuseto play in the dirt again. It
is it is It is so okay, So let's kind of wrap this up
and talk about you know what wesaid, so again, Pete Moss,
you just don't need it to makea really quality potting soil. And to
do that this recipe that we havetoday, which is five ingredients again you
know, pulverized soil, compost,you're talking about, coffee grounds, spent
(19:53):
the spent variety, perlite, andworm castings, those five together in that
mix. And again go to SimpleGarden Life. This will be the article
of the week. And if it'snot up there, all you gotta do
is just put in the search barright there best potting soil or potting soil,
it's going to come up. Andagain on all of our sites.
(20:14):
I always want to tell that peoplethere's a search bar on every site and
it's a really good search bar.Put in any topic in there and you're
going to find our articles on it, and it's really helpful. Absolutely,
it's a great way to find theinformation that even if it's something we haven't
yet covered, you can definitely searchthose websites and get what you need.
That's right. So I think thatabout does it get out there make your
own potting soil try it, justyou know what, do what we used
(20:37):
to do and have a little funwith it. We would plant some commercial
potting soil and we would do ours, and we would try a couple of
mixes and we try ours. Wealways came back to, wow, this
is I think the final tweak forus was adding a little more worm castings
that really put more energy in it. But have fun with it, have
fun with guardening. That's what it'sall about, right Mary, Absolutely,
I think it's time. It's time. Well, happy spring everyone, and
remember whatever you do, find thefun and gardening and grow something beautiful.
(21:00):
So long everyone. We hope you'veenjoyed this episode. Subscribe to the Simple
Garden podcast on iTunes, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or most of your favorite
podcast apps. You can also headover to simplegardenlife dot com where you can
listen and read all of the shownotes to every episode. And if you
have any questions, any ideas forshow topics, or if you want to
share your favorite garden tip, emailus at the farm at owgarden dot com.
(21:25):
Until next time, Thanks everyone,
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