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    I CAN'T MAKE A PAIR OF GUCCI LOAFERS BUT I SURE CAN MAKE POTTING SOIL.

    May 29, 2016 by Karen 47 Comments

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    The most BASIC potting soil you can make. Two ingredients, very inexpensive and great for filling large containers or areas.

    I want a pair of summer Gucci moccasins.  I really want a pair of summer Gucci moccasins.  I check on Ebay and Etsy and high end consignment shops for Gucci moccasins.  Sometimes I find them. And then I don't buy them because you don't just go around buying yourself Gucci moccasins for no reason.

    I have to remind myself every so often that it's O.K. to spend the odd bit of frivolous money on myself.  In fact, it's kind of a good thing to do.  If you can get past that seasick feeling buying yourself nice things can feel great. 

    So when I bought my mother an INSANELY GREAT  but HUGE raised vegetable planter I nearly passed out when I realized how much it was going to cost to fill it with soil.

    AND JUST LIKE THAT, THIS HAS TURNED INTO A POST

    ON HOW TO MAKE YOUR OWN LARGE SCALE, CHEAP POTTING SOIL!

     

    At 15 cubic feet I was looking at close to $100 to fill my my mother's raised planter with soil.  $70 if I used the cheap stuff.  BOTH of the potting mixes I was looking at were 85%  peat moss by the way.

    This is an issue for 2 reasons .... 85 % peat moss??? Peat Moss is dirt cheap.  LOLOLOL.  Sorry. A little soil humour there.  Peat moss is around $10 for a huge bag, so how come a bag of 85% peat moss was going for $30?  Basically I was paying $100 for 3 big bags of air.  Plus, if you didn't know ...

    Peat moss is a non renewable resource that's been overharvested.

    That means Peat moss, which naturally occurs in bogs has been harvested way, WAY more than it can reproduce.  So we're down to the last dregs of Peat Moss in Canadian bogs. There's an argument to be made for Canadians continuing to use peat moss because it's their own resource that requires only a small amount of travel impact, as opposed to the Coco Coir that has to be harvested and shipped from Sri Lanka.

    I'll leave it to use to decide which to use. I use both Coco Coir and Peat Moss in my potting mixes.

    Coco Coir (pronounced coy-err) is coconut husk fibres usually harvested in Sri Lanka.  It is a renewable resource that does the exact same thing as peat moss.  It absorbs and holds water.

    In my experience it doesn't hold as much water as peat though and definitely dries out faster.

    Coco Coir sells for about $10 for a little block that expands to 10x its size.

    CoirBlock1-1

    Would you like to save this stuff?

    We'll email you this post, so you can refer to it later.

    It's sold in bricks like this because  it's so much easier to ship from Sri Lanka.  It's just packed and mashed into a compressed form and to puff it up, you just soak it in  water.

    I got coconut coir for my mother's planter from a local dirt place that sells everything in bulk.  They had reconstituted coconut coir for $20 for half of a yard!  I just had to bag it up myself.  Which I did with everything I could find in my trunk.

    coco-coir

    It was just luck that I found a place that sold Coco Coir in bulk like this, it isn't easy to find this way, so don't go hunting for it.  Just get the stuff that's sold in a brick.  Amazon is the easiest place to find it, but in Canada they will also special order it for you at Home Hardware at a really good price.

    They did not have any Gucci moccasins at the dirt place by the way.  I asked.  Repeatedly.

    TO MAKE POTTING SOIL JUST MIX COCO COIR

    (OR PEAT MOSS IF YOU MUST) WITH COMPOST.

    2:1 RATIO

    2 parts COCO COIR : 1 part COMPOST

    longpin

    Some people also add in pearlite or vermiculite to their mix, but I di.  Plus I was too cheap to buy a $30 bag of Pearlite.  (Pearlite is the stuff that looks like balls of styrofoam and Vermiculte is the shaley, shiny stuff).  Those two things help to keep the soil from being compacted so the roots have a nice easy path trough the growing medium, but Coco Coir is so airy that I didn't think it was necessary.

    The ratio of Coco Coir (or peat moss if you must) to compost doesn't really matter all that much.  I have REALLY strong compost because I gather and make it from my chicken droppings and straw so I don't need a ton of compost in relation to the Coco Coir to make a good nutrient rich soil.

    And as I reminded myself this spring when I was potting up my seedlings (while not wearing Gucci loafers) there is such a thing as "too much of a good thing."  I added too much compost to my potting mix at a ratio of 1:1 and sent my plants into fits. They had yellow leaves with dark green veins.  Basically I overdosed them.

    Because I had my own compost and didn't have to buy any I had a total cost savings of around $77.

    Just a few more savings like that and it'll be good-bye cardboard shoes,  hello Gucci. Unless I get "the sweats" as I hover my finger over the add to cart button.  In which case, I'll pop an anti-nauseant and push the button anyway.

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    1. Shannon

      June 06, 2016 at 3:28 pm

      Great post! Wish I had it one weekend sooner...although I used peat moss I didnt always commit to a 2:1 ratio. I'm really curious what you did to "fix" the over rich soil you had for your seedlings. Were they doomed? I hope not, because I believe I just did this with my favorite clematis. (Yes, I know I'm not supposed to repot clematis this time of year but I was forced to when its planter broke). My leaves are looking exactly as you described...yellowing with darkgreen veins.

      Reply
      • Karen

        June 06, 2016 at 4:06 pm

        Hi Shannon! Because I knew I was putting them in the ground very soon I didn't end up doing anything, but you could try what my other reader said and amend your soil with some epsom salts. :) ~ karen!

        Reply
    2. Benjamin

      June 01, 2016 at 1:35 am

      just add some of the homestyle silk screen tee shirts and tea towels that your readers can buy and you'll be well on your way to Gucci-ville. I'd love a tee with your logo meat cleaver on it please.

      Reply
      • Karen

        June 01, 2016 at 9:04 am

        I know. I keep meaning to do it but it's SO hard. I have no time! Just finding tee shirts that I don't think are awful has been a struggle, lol. They need to be soft and nice and not too long and not too short (sleeves and length) and on and on and on. ~ karen!

        Reply
    3. karen j cosme

      May 31, 2016 at 7:29 am

      i'm the same way - trying to save whenever i can. i only buy my big ticket tools when i can get at least 10% off as a veteran. but i have to tell you, karen, that i am so not buying that trug...i'm building it (http://myoutdoorplans.com/planter/raised-planter-box-plans/ or http://myoutdoorplans.com/planter/waist-high-raised-garden-bed-plans/). them. for my mom. she lives in a senior complex and thinks she has a green thumb. this is why i'm trying to get the yard done. you know, before we lose her to the great beyond. i live in massachusetts and get my coir from the marijuana growers' store. seems coir is the preferred medium. and i feel you on the guccis. i do. i am so torn over buying birkenstocks. i download the german brochure every year...like a christmas wish book...then pay $1 for shoes at the salvation army thrift store on any given saturday. i think this will be my gift for completing a challenge or three - a trip to boston or providence for birkenstocks. yay!

      Reply
      • Karen

        May 31, 2016 at 9:31 am

        LOL. Just buy the Birkenstocks. They really will last forever! I thought about building the trug but I"m just plain old out of time. Also, the price of wood (it's cedar too) just wasn't going to make it worth it for me. ~ karen!

        Reply
    4. Amanda

      May 31, 2016 at 7:04 am

      I had a great plan to buy a pair of Givenchy slip on sandals for summer, and by the time I went to do it they were sold out. Sometime's you'd really rather just spend the extra to have some luxury in your life...not to mention, in my experience, higher quality things outlast the cheaper ones.

      Reply
    5. Erika

      May 30, 2016 at 5:50 pm

      Peat moss has always driven me nuts because it's so hard to take it from bone dry to evenly moist. On a recent Shark Tank some folks presented a peat moss substitute called PittMoss. I copied and pasted a couple paragraphs from their website below. It handles water better. Haven't used it yet, but plan to!

      PittMoss® is a revolutionary product designed to be used as a plant growing substrate. It is made of recycled newspaper and helps plants develop stronger root systems and uniform growth. PittMoss® is the product of decades of experimentation to find the ideal growing medium to encourage healthy plant development while practicing a more responsible use of our natural resources.
      Healthy, Beautiful Plants
      PittMoss® helps plants grow better due to its unique properties:
      Superior water retention for extended shelf life, improved wilt point, and reduced water requirements
      Excellent porosity for superior delivery of water and nutrients to roots
      Pathogen free for reduction of chemical application

      Reply
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    My name is Karen Bertelsen and I was a television host. In Canada. Which means in terms of notoriety and wealth, I was somewhere on par with the manager of a Sunset Tan in Wisconsin.

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