In the Garden: DIY Potting Soil

Even though it was almost time to plant our happy little sprouts in the garden, we needed to transplant some of the tomato and cucumber seedlings a couple weeks ago, as they were outgrowing their cells.  At the same time, we had some new plants from Mother's Day, as well as some older potted plants that were sorely in need of larger pots. We decided it was time to get more [potting soil.

After buying several bags of potting soil and realizing those few bags weren't going to cut it, we decided to research mixing some of our own.

First, we wanted to make a mix that would have similar properties to store-bought mixes, but without the cost.  I'm not guaranteeing that each DIY element has the exact functions as their commercial   counterparts, but it's all natural and it's free!  Plus, our plants seem to be thriving in it so far.

After researching potting mix ingredients and their corresponding percentages, we decided on 30-percent leaf compost, 30-percent wood chips, 25-percent sand, 15-percent pea gravel.  We would have added in some manure, but as we don't yet have livestock, that was an easy pass.

The leaf compost we got from the woods. We chose it for its water holding capacity. The wood chips we already had on hand from shredding brush. We chose them for moisture regulation. It was a stretch to source sand from our homestead, but we ended up using some sand- like gravel dust left over from when our well was dug. Sand is great for drainage. Lastly, we found the pea gravel in our gravel bed which was left over from when our driveway was put in.  Pea gravel helps with aeration.  

We won't always have random gravel and sand lying around, but one thing this experience reminded me of was that it's ok to get creative and think outside the box now and then. In fact, I think in our day and age, thinking outside the world's box might be the only right answer!