Mixing Your Own Soil
Mix your own potting soil!
Create your own unique blend of soil for your garden or containers with just a few ingredients. You can tailor-make your own soil to fit your plants and environment. As gardeners, we use potting soil to help in certain ways, such as adding more drainage, retaining moisture, providing nutrients and more.
Bryan begins by using a mushroom compost base for his soil mix, which will add in nutrients to help plant growth. You can choose another base, such as a different mature compost or peat moss. He also uses sphagnum moss, coir fibres, sand, perlite, Epsom salts and lime.
Sphagnum moss is well-draining and considered stable—it won’t break down very fast and will act as an anchor for your mix. Coir fibres are similar in function to sphagnum moss, but break down even slower and add a few more nutrients to the blend. However, coir is often more expensive, so mixing it with sphagnum can be an economical solution.
Perlite, actually made from volcanic rock, is very lightweight but holds water and helps with drainage—an all-around helpful addition.
Sand can be added to help with drainage and ensure you plants don’t end up with soggy roots. We add lime to our mix to lower the pH level, which is a good thing for your garden. Epsom salts also help lower pH and add magnesium, which is essential to growth.
Bryan uses the following amounts of each in his own potting soil mix:
- 2 Parts Compost
- 1 Part Coir
- 1 Part Sphagnum Moss
- 1/2 Part sand
- 1/2 Part Perlite
- 2-3 Tbs Epsom salts
Try out your own mix of ingredients to find the perfect garden soil for your garden beds, vegetable beds and container gardens!
