I buy potting soil usually Miracle Grow but I use it as an amendment and add it to other garden dirt, compost, horse or cow manure, or peat moss. I don't put many plants in pots cause I am not good at watering them or fertilizing them. When I plant things in the ground, I dig my holes and put the dirt in my wagon. Then I add the above things to it and my DH mixes it up real good for me. Then I add this to the holes when I plant my flowers.

But Anna - all of us, unlike you, do not go though 700 yards of potting soil

Regardless of how much i would use, I'm still "cheap". Unless I was using 50 of the 4 inch pots (which will NEVER happen, believe me..........)....................

AnnaZ said:Regardless of how much i would use, I'm still "cheap". Unless I was using 50 of the 4 inch pots (which will NEVER happen, believe me..........)....................

true... but the OP mentioned a bag of potting soil for $1.94 so somehow I don't think mixing a batch would be quite worthwhile in that case...

At any rate, dirt is definitely not dirt cheap anymore!

Walmart sells big bags of miracle gro for 8 dollars and I couldn't find any recipes of potting soil on YouTube that would be cheap. Manure is listed as 85 dollars on craigslist in my area and composting seems to be years of work and I don't have a home compost bin...

2 parts peat moss
1 part compost
1 parr sand

Mix up good.

Will this work with all my plants, veggies, fruits, and all that? I don't know what to use for my own compost either. Do i use just coffee grinds as compost or just tea? And, how long do i wait till i can use it? My garden is going to be in raised beds too and in pots, i'm not just placing them in the ground since we are renter's and I don't know what the previous owner's did to the lawn like if they had animals that were sick or if they sprayed a lot of chemicals on the yard and contaminated the soil. I have no way of knowing that. So would i be able to do

1part coffee grinds
1 part sand
2 part peat moss

To make your own compost is a real effort to do a good job. And it helps to have either a tumbler or a 3 pile system which I used for years. Note that your own compost is not what you buy as compost - that is composted cow manure. The best stuff is pretty expensive. MooNure - highly composted.

WE ARE NUMBER 1 IN THE NUMBER 2 BUSINESS

http://www.trademarkia.com/we-...

If you buy generic cow manure that has not been adequately composted, it can burn plants.

I'm near a lot of dairy farms, but they don't sell their manure since they also use it to plant their grapes, corn, and other plants. I saw moo-nure on homedepot's site, but their wasn't a price next to it. I will check out the link you sent when I get home. Thanks for the info david!

Renae, when you go onto Home Depot's website there is a spot for you to put your zip code in and it will bring up the nearest store. Make that your store on the website and that should give you prices on everything.

It's in the upper left hand corner and will say choose a store to see local inventory.

Ok cool thank you. i will take a look at it after I'm done making dinner

pepper23 said:Renae, when you go onto Home Depot's website there is a spot for you to put your zip code in and it will bring up the nearest store. Make that your store on the website and that should give you prices on everything.

It's in the upper left hand corner and will say choose a store to see local inventory.

This doesn't always work and I don't know why. I made the nearest store "my" store several times but I keep getting switched back to Minnesota (where I've never lived). lol

It's not a big deal, just a head's up because it can cause confusion.

The location set fine for me, it's just it told me that moo-nure wasn't sold at the Home Depot in my location :/

I make my own starter soil because I know what is in it, I have time, and it is WAY cheaper.

I get Leaf-Gro compost by the trailerload for the lawn and garden anyway, so that is really cheap and I save some for my starter soil. Some places sell perlite and vermiculite on sale, so I get the best deals at various places, peat moss bales expand a LOT, and I can mix everything to my preference.

Buying starter soil is expensive by small bags even when I can find it.

The difference between starter soil and potting soil is that potting soil comes with synthetic fertilizers added; starter soil is more sterile. Seedlings don't need fertilizer at first (hence "starter") and I can add what they need as they need it.

Ok so then i shouldnt make potting soil cause it needs something senthetic in it? Im a bit confused. It'd definately be nice if I was able to just grab diy potting soil in my backyard instead of having to constantly buy more bags of soil especially cause i'm already out of it. I do have to hold off on buying some things people have recommended to me since I have to save money for something I need later on this year aside from us saving for our next place.

What exactly are you planning to grow in the soil? It makes a difference. If you are starting seeds you need one type. If you are putting plants in pots you need different types of planting medium for different plants. I know you are planning to move in (maybe) September, but where is your garden located now? Patio/backyard/indoors? All of this makes a difference as to what kind of soil/planting medium is appropriate.

You can start seeds in something as simple as plain Vermiculite. Although member Jonna Sudenius does not often participate in discussion, she shared a good way to start seeds by simply using damp vermiculite.
http://www.seedsite.eu/article...

Or, if you are planning on growing plants...can you share the names and/or photos of the plants? It might help.

RenaeC said:Ok so then i shouldnt make potting soil cause it needs something senthetic in it? .

Potting soil does NOT necessarily have anything Synthetic in. That is NOT true - some do, many do NOT.
Try Happy Frog for example. it is 100 % natural stuff. Ditto for Foxfarm and many, many others.

And even common brands can be purchased without added crap like water retention junk and fertilizer.

Do NOT use soil out of your yard for potting soil. Sure to have problems.

Right now all my plants are in my kitchen in various plant pots. If it's not too hot out i may put them in front of my front door for a little bit to get more sun since the summer heat isn't here right now. I plan to grow pretty much the list on my profile. Some I will keep in individual pots while others may stay in garden beds(I'm still looking into aquaponics and the specs for them).Ive also managed to find dwarf trees of the things I want too, but I'm trying to hold off on trees till we've settled in one place or will be somewhere for a while. I have 2 trees currently I'm waiting on to see if they will make it. 1 is the olive tree cuttings experiment the other is a jackfruit seedling that was already sprouted in the fruit when I opened it up. We shall see how they do in the next few months from now.

I avoid Scott's like the plague. I get better stuff out of my chipper than what the call 'soil'.

I like the Miracle Gro potting mix and garden soil. I use the potting mix for anything that is in pots in full sun because it stays damp longer. The garden soil I use everywhere else. Depending on what's going into it, I may add some leaf mulch or perlite.

I also have no problem using the soil from my yard. Of course, there's a lot of clay (ok, mostly clay ) so I just add some peat, leaf mulch, perlite and/or sand. Again, the mix depends on where it's going and what's going to go into it.

I have miracle gro in my plant pots right now. I dont think ive ever seen scotts potting soil here, but from what others say i wouldnt get it anyway, but yea my plants will be placed in individual pots and a raised garden bed. I havent really made a plan yet as of what exactly goes in what since things arent set up and in motion yet.