Hairstyel01: Make Your Own Signature Potting Mix & Save!

Camp Wander

gets Dirty.

Better go change those nice clothes and slip into something more practical because it's dirty business making magic happen.

Over the last few days, I've blogged about how to age your pots and the charming .98 cent pots, well now it's time to fill those pots!

It's convenient to run to my local garden center to buy everything I need for my fresh, new summer pots. It's exciting! So exciting, I spend a small fortune on the flora and fauna, hardly paying attention to the 4 ft long receipt spewing out of the cash register because, I'm so excited! 2.5 cubic ft of ~~Miracle Gro~~ is now $13 at Home Depot, that is deplorable!

I M U S T S T O P T H I S M A D N E S S

(in moderation)

Choosing to make your own signature potting mix is smart, economical and green.

The greatest benefit to creating your own potting mix is the opportunity to control the ingredients. Now you can further enrich the mix with compost, organic fertilizer, water and any other ingredient that pertains to your soil conditions, garden zone, etc. Without getting scientific (as if I could), our plants are only as healthy as the soil we put them in. Plain and simple. It's important that we make our efforts relevant in the garden. We are not the only benefactors of our choices. Everything we bring into our gardens will have an impact on the insects and birds that visit as well as our own health.

Let's get our RELEVANT on AND save money!

One 5 gallon bucket each of:

Compost

Vermiculite

Peat

4 Cups Organic Fertilizer

Peat is packaged dry and needs to be moistened with water before mixing. Use of peat is controversial because it's not a sustainable product. I'm working on an alternative but, I'm far from being a perfect greenie however, I'm doing my best!

This is a bucket full of our finished compost that we're very, very proud of! If you don't make your own, you can substitute a commerical compost. However, please consider composting, even on a small scale like this {click here}

Oops, I forgot a photo of the vermiculite. It's in the orange bucket on the ground in this shot. Vermiculite adds loft to your mix. It biodegrades and helps with water retention. It won't harm all those beneficial crawly things (worms) in the ground that benefit plants.

I like to toss in some extra nutrients by mixing in a dry organic fertilizer. Your choice, most garden centers stock something like this now.

I like this mix, it's simple! Just remember to get your peat wet before mixing...better before than after. Because I don't have a jumbo cart or wheelbarrow, I mix half of the ingredients together, breaking it down into 2 batches, its more manageable that way.