An irreverent take on gardening in the Midwest by a frequently disgruntled gardener.

Friday, November 25, 2011

Conventional Wisdom and Potting Soil

My in-laws were visiting from India last summer and watched in amusement as I emptied bag after bag of potting soil into my various containers.  In America, someone said, even the dirt comes in a plastic bag.  I don't think it was a compliment.



However, it did make me think.  It's Gardening 101 that you must use a good container mix for pots for root growth and development, but maybe next year I'll experiment and see what happens if I fill a few containers with regular garden soil and a little compost.  Will it really be an unmitigated disaster?  Have we sold our souls to the potting mix cartels?  I have to say though that I bought really cheap potting soil once and it was really dense and awful and everything I planted in it just languished.  Maybe I'll just see if I can buy potting soil in compostable bags.
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1 comment:

  1. KLDecember 30, 2011 at 2:40 PM

    I have had complete success so far with both potting soil and garden soil. In fact, I think that nowadays I don't even buy potting soil. I buy garden soil and use it in both pots and gardens. However, I make sure that I buy the organic soil and use organic fertilizer.

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