Those big bags of potting mix can get expensive, especially for gardeners who plant a lot of containers.
It’s possible to save money by making your own mixes out of bulk, raw ingredients, or even to stretch the budget by adding your own compost to store-bought mixes.
Potting-mix money-savers
One way to save right off the bat is to look for broken bags of potting mix at the garden center. These are often full (or nearly full) and sometimes discounted by 50 percent or more. Don’t scrimp on bargain brands that are heavy, poorly drained, and made using less desirable ingredients such as soil, sand, sawdust, wood fragments, and manures.
Good-quality potting mix is noticeably lighter in weight, and according to University of California plant pathologist Dr. Jim Downer, composed of such ingredients as peat moss, coir (coconut fibers), bark, perlite (volcanic glass that’s been super-heated to create what look like tiny pellets of Styrofoam), and/or compost, along with an organic or timed-release fertilizer to add nutrition.
Broken or not, store-bought bags can be stretched by adding free or low-cost amendments.
Top of the list is your own homemade compost, which typically includes a nutritious mix of recycled household organics such as leaves, grass clippings, weeds (that haven’t gone to seed), yanked garden plants, coffee grounds, eggshells, potato peelings from the kitchen, and so on.
Just be sure the compost has finished decomposing and has no odor before mixing it with store-bought potting mix. Working just 10 or 20 percent compost into a store-bought mix can save a few dollars while adding nutrition to the pot. Some gardeners use up to 50-50 blends, while “Foodscaping Revolution” author Brie Arthur says she’s used even 100 percent compost in her edible-plant pots with good success.
Besides homemade compost, mixes can be stretched by using less expensive bales of compressed peat moss or depending on price, bags or bricks of coir.
