“ My kind of herbs, Basil.”😆😆😆

My method for containers is to use cheap potting soil only on top and use compost, sticks, leaves and other organic matter to fill the bottom 80%. Mulch the top and watch the plants go crazy.

To limit the weight of our pots we add wood chips to the bottom and at the end of the season, we dump the pots into the compost pile so we can use that material next year. Happy New Year

Seriously your the most informative garden subscription I have. Even as a intermediate 6 yr experience growing bigger each year gardener you continue to give me new info thats not repetitive like gardening info can alot of the times be.

I absolutely am sooooo thankful for this channel! I am learning so much! This year I’m praying now that I have more knowledge my garden will be wonderful!! Thank you MI gardener guy!!!!

I learned the hard way. I bought “top soil/potting soil on sale. It was at least 20 percent water and had at least 2 pounds of rocks. None of that went to the garden. Mine was not the first complaint the retailer had gotten on that product and they offered my money back but I had used it for filling holes and it was okay for that. Lesson learned! Havagudun and keep them coming.

OMG, what took me so long to find your channel! As a container grower, I’ve leaned the hard way with compacted putrid soil. Thank you so much 👏

Thanks for your expertise in describing in rich detail the pros and cons of different bags of soil for us to distinguish and hopefully choose the right stuff to be on track with growing a dream garden. Never buy the most expensive or the cheapest kind .

Thank you for sharing your knowledge with your fellow Michiganders! Love your good genuine character…. Hope to make it to your store this season!

Really helpful video thank you. Last year, my first year back to gardening, I really wasnt aware or knowledgeable when it came to filling my beds. This year I am better equipped and grateful to be able to keep learning. Thanks!

I live in very hot North Texas and I’ve found using compost in my containers helps preserve moisture better than potting mix.

Thanks for the great info on garden soils. I plan to amend my garden soil this month and have some good ideas on what to do now and in a few months.

I tend to get cheap top soil but then mix in peat moss and manure. My top soil has no glass, nails or stones in it. I also mulch and add in shredded fall leaves (actually top dress in the fall and then mix in in the Spring). In ground gardening.

I'm guessing some of this info is dependent on your location. I live in Georgia (not far from Atlanta) and the "top soil" available at my local big box stores actually resembles more of a humus-type material. There's very little soil in it (at least as I would describe "soil"). Think of what you would find in a heavily wooded area after you rake up the top layer of leaves and debris. You know, that thoroughly composted stuff that looks like dirt but won't clump together? What I get when I open a bag of the "top soil" I buy in my area looks like that. No rocks or junk, either. It actually looks pretty rich. I imagine it undergoes a lot pf processing and isn't anywhere near as nourishing as it looks. I use it mainly as a cheap filler and mix it with soil from my yard (which is mainly clay) to improve the consistency and moisture handling properties in raised beds, then amend it with compost and a little fertilizer. I've had pretty good luck with it. Bottom line is that what you've done here is give us some good information to start with, but it's up to each of us to explore the resources available to us where we are and make the best choices based on what we have and what we need.

just started cleaning out a bed that's been overgrown by winter creeper for a decade. totally replacing the soil! i did 4 bags of sta-green garden soil, with one bag compost & manure. still got over half the bed to go. thanks for the info!

This is one of the most helpful videos I’ve found so far on KZfaq I’m just getting into gardening and I’m loving it soaking up as much knowledge as I can before spring as soon as I started watching this though I had 2 ideas pop in my head 1 is what if some of us sent this guy soil samples from our local garden supply stores with his permission of course and he rated them analyzed them etc then my second thought along the same lines and probably way easier on him what if he did a Q&A where we describe our soil weight price a picture etc and he chooses the best from the Q&A to speak about in a video for instance my local garden supply I use is Groggs Green Barn in Tulsa Oklahoma they’re very nice and the place is well stocked with a good vibe but their soil is a little expensive I bought a bag 1.5 cubic feet 30 pounds original weight before moistening it’s made of perilite peat moss compost and worm castings it says they market it as a base starting mix for seeds and the first stages of development it cost 18 dollars a bag I’d like to know if this is similar to the prices you all are paying

We have a small greenhouse business selling organically-grown plant starts and we purchase Purple Cow Organics at a wholesale cost. Yes, it eats away at our allotted budget, but after trying several different organic potting mixes, this is the one we trust and that our plants love. The biggest issue with the other mixes is weed seeds. Last year was the worse year with stinging nettle seeds in the mix! Never again.

Thank you so much, soil in our raised beds has always seemed intimidating to me... I just get overwhelmed at the store and grab whatever and hope it works 😅

Luke!! I live in Massachusetts and I bought a house and started growing 2 years ago. Raised beds, no poly tunnels or any other protection. It's February 5th and it has snowed and frozen many times. My strawberries are fine, and I'm still growing lettuce, my potatoes and garlic are in the ground and ready. Even in the winter my garden is alive and active, and I was hoping you could schedule a video about how we could optimise the colder months and maybe even keep growing all year round!? Thank you for everything I know, keep up the great work!!

I took the same approach for my raised beds as my in ground garden. Start with native soil and add composted cow manure (free at my local university) compost from my local trash facility $10 a truckload. And peat moss. Use the ingredients sparingly. Over a few years you will have great soil. The key in this approach is organic matter.

Thank you for this tips! I received my herbs seeds from your store this week and they are growing already! I’m so happy to have herbs again!

Thank you Luke. My second year growing and I’m starting to learn more about soil and this was so helpful.

I wish I watch this before I did my first container garden this year. Very good breakdown. I blended 1 part topsoil, 1 part compost, 1 part potting mix. It think it did not retain water very well and need to focus on water retention next year.

Now I'm curious what is in a $30-$50 bag of soil... Thanks for a comparative review of the different bagged soils. We mostly make our own growing media mixture/soil from the basic ingredients.

Thank goodness! I held off watching for a day as I was worried I bought the wrong stuff! Whew! Sta-Green (blue bag) A-OK.

Thank you for saving me from my soil guilt :-) Happy New Year :-)

Great video! I have been guilty of both, spending too much or being too cheap 😂 This was very helpful, thank you 🙏

Side Note: Composted Manure from big box is often still composting. Personally I let it sit outside for a month before adding to my garden.

Marijuana... u just threw it out there ..hahahahha another awesome vid and thanks for another gardening lesson ....💜 from pnw

Great. Can you do the same talk with what soil to start seedlings in please?

Thank you Luke! I needed this!!

The last "top soil" I bought was basically chipped up tree bark. Could you please do a video on growing turnips? Thanks!

For an indoor 3 gallon bucket I mixed garden soil with potting mix sand and coco coir. Outside with patches of grass the garden soil has not washed away even with a few snow melts and rain. I poked holes in every bag and decided I liked the garden soil best

I use Dairy Doo from Morgan Composting in Michigan. The best stuff ! They have formulas from seed starting to veggie beds, to tree and shrubs, to container gardens.All organic. Not cheap but a little goes a long way. Not sure if it is sold outside of Michigan.

Thank you I have been adding composted cow manure for the last 4 years to my garden beds I will be adding the sternum Petemoss to it this spring! I live 10 minutes south of MInin Indiana so it helps to know we have somewhat the same conditions!

This is well and good for a beginner gardener who just wants to add one product to their bed and has a large budget. Top soil has it's purpose in a bed in the correct ratio to other components added in at a much more affordable cost.

That same brand of compost manure is actually sold at my Menards store here in iowa for the same cost as the top soil. Its roughly almost $2 a bag. Its a huge cost savings for me while still keeping up nutrition in my raised bed soil. I then do a mix of peet moss and a few other small nutrient boosts to the soil. Over all each bed of 4×8×12 costs me like 50 to 70 bucks. Now there all built from my first year im gonna amend them with the compost ive made from last seasons solids and other organic matter

Black Kow manure and Miracle Gro Garden Soil is my go to for great results.

i appreciate your compassion.

anymore I try to go with not necessarily the most expensive soil there is out there. but maybe the best quality soil you can fine. but you definitely mad some very good points especially for somebody that's a beginner gardener

I made what I feel was a very high quality and low cost garden bed and it has produced very well all year for me, thank goodness right? What I did was I set up cinder blocks in an excess part of my driveway and basically composted stuff in there all winter from 2019-2020, kept smashing down the leaves food scraps you name it. Now when this was done in the spring I mixed the black velvet mushroom compost, black kow cow manure, and a large brick of peat moss one each to fill to the top. Couldnt be happier with it, and it was very cheap.

This is great information to know. Thanks.

luke i have high raised beds . i am 85 years. last year my son built me hugelculture beds. this year i wiil have to add a lot more soil. i will be coming to see you as i live in saginaw. so weather permitting,i will see you soon

Thank you for another great video. May I ask and this is a crazy question, Do bagged soils have an expiration date??? 😬

Do you have a video breaking down why certain things are good for the garden? such as: Why is peat moss good? Why is perlite good? Why is vermiculite good? What is the difference between perlite and vermiculite? What ratio should I try to aim for? Why is coconut husk good? What are the benefits between peat moss and coconut husk? What's the difference between compost, manure, and top soil when it comes to nutrients? and any other type of questions that revolve around this type of thing.

Thank you for this video!!!

I'm feeling dumb here, but...that last bag says "Garden Soil", not compost as stated in the video. Is that what bagged garden soil is?

Thanks for the tips and comparisons

I love making my own potting soil. Where I live I’m lucky to be able to buy perlite and vermiculite in huge bags really cheap Pete Moss and of course making my own compost or buying it and those cheap two dollar bags of compost at Lowe’s and mixing it all together with some bone and blood meals. And I go crazy and throw in all the kelp, crab shell, a little lime, my own castings. But just compost combined with Pete Moss by itself does a great job. I love container gardening because where I live is all sand.

Yo loving the winter gardening content! I just started a really crazy indoor/outdoor tilapia aquaponics system. Videos coming soon on my channel! Cheers

Great video! Thanks for doing it

Interesting. Thanks for the helpful information. "Home is where the garden is" 🤔🌱🍃🐞🐝🐛🙂

Mix your own potting mix and save money. The only bagged stuff I buy are peat, composted manure, perlite and pelletized chicken manure. In a year or two I hope to replace the peat with leaf mold.

Super helpful. Thank you! So glad I found your channel.

I have used the bagged topsoil in the past successfully. It requires extra fertilizer and watering. It definitely works better mixed with peat moss.

So much great info!🙂

I have found calling around you can purchase a decent 50:50 loam and compost at a decent cost. Or just compost. Much better deal for a large quality.

TOPIC : SINGLE BAG INGRIDIENTS VS MIXING THEM ALL TOGETHER INGRIDIENTS. DEFINITELY MIX THEM! . I've took 6 different mediums at Lowes: MG raised bed mix, MG moisture control, MG potting mix, MG organics, jungle growth and humus/manure. With those mixed together I get: peat moss, alfalfa meal, Forrest compost, Yucca, worm castings, green sand, Coco coir, dolomite lime, kelp meal, poultry litter, horticulture ash, manure, humus, perlite and bone meal. Then I'll top dress with bat guano, kelp, blood and bone meal, CalMag, biochar, superThrive, beneficial bacteria and fungi. Npk in the medium is 0.5-0.5-0.5 roughly. I'd love your thoughts on this diverse mix. Is it overkill? What would you add or take away? I think it was a good idea. I got allll those nutes instead of 3 or 4. By mixing I got them all(plus compost) and the base is primarily peat moss/coco/perlite. Much better than just ground up wood chips and plain potting soil. Why dont more people do this?

Super helpful video!

Totally off topic, but if you haven't tried growing jerusalem artichokes, I would be interested to know what you think. Just started growing them, and I'm amazed with the results! I would be happy to send you a few starter tubers!

I buy a cheap potting mix that's just composted forest products and sand. I really like because I can add my favorite fertilizer and has no peat moss. I reuse it every year to save even more money. When I reuse it, I amend it with more wood and bark to keep it fluffy and well draining

I go to my local hydroponics store everywhere in Michigan at-least and get pro mix 40 for a giant bag goes way farther then a non compressed potting soil

I just got my seeds from you guys thanks😀 Now I just need spring to come.

Great video, thanks

Our city composts all of the yard waste, so I get my compost free as long as I haul it. The compost is tested to make sure it doesn't have anything that will kill you plants, but it is also made of whatever people throw in the yard bins. I mix the city compost with some Black Cow manure and plenty of peat moss and vermiculite. This seems to work well and keeps my soil costs pretty low. Spring 2020 the city closed the compost facility for a bit, so you couldn't get it, so I used mushroom compost with animal compost and, as always peat moss and vermiculite.

I have found the best bagged soil/composts etc. Is out of of Maine called Coast of Maine they use lobster fish and seaweed. I think you'd like it Ma

We love using peat moss with any top soil 🌱

I bought Sutherlands store band top soil.. I used it when transplanting which I’ve used top soil before. Everything died.. I took it back and a lot of customers had taken back theirs too bc it killed what they used it on.. in skeptical in store brands.

Basically… Compost Manure and Peat moss 1:1 is awesome, take it a step further and add perlite or vermiculite (all 1:1:1) and you’re golden.

Haha the intro alone got me, good work

People have used plastic water bottles(with lids on) to take up space in big containers. I haven't. I have used 3" tree limbs but still heavy. Like your method.

I just mostly use cow manure. It's cheap and plants love it. Kellogs makes good stuff too, but good old manure has yet to fail me.

Thank you!

Love your channel, keep it up 👍🏽

Thank you.

Pretty soon i will be tilling an acre for a larger scale garden so far top soil and horse manure has worked fine but i cant get an acre of manure so il use what i got and get some pete moss and perlite to aid the clay soil and maybe some trifecta plus.

Got to get more BANG FOR YOUR BUCK so to speak I use wood chips garden soil and the potting mix am giving some of the other potting soil some tries on the garden but always go for the cow manure from a farmer that I know !!

Gives new meaning to the term "potting" soil...

What soil would you recommend for trying to grow ,just cold stratified, dunstan chestnuts ? with a tap root under a light for a couple months until it’s time in Michigan to plant

Nice video. One thing is that a lot of that cheap (and expensive) manure compost may still be hot. Therefore be careful in using it in a raised bed without mixing it. For a raised bed, I tend to layer it. First, a high-cost (good) manure compost that I put down, like black kow. That way it will start to mix with the native soil and soften it while being low enough not to burn new roots. It really don't add much in terms of adding height to the soil, but more prep of the underneath. Depending on budget, I will typically throw in some cheap compost (~60%), topsoil (~30%), a small amount of perlite(~2%), and a small amount of peat moss(~8%) as a filler (normally no more than 50% of the raised bed). The remained I normally use 50%/50% peat moss and mushroom compost (because I know it is not hot) and perlite at a higher level (maybe ~20%-25%). This is really similar to Mel's Mix (square foot gardening), except I have always had more luck with perlite than vermiculite. I also tend to layer a thin coating of organic fertilizer that has good fungi and bacteria in it, and may even put in some rock dust depending on what I plan to grow. I have never tried the miracle-gro soil mix stuff. I used happy frog (great but expensive around me). I have used Kellogg's raised bed and garden soil. It was ok. I probably only save about 5-10 dollars using my above method over the cost of buying Kellogg's raised bed mix per 16 cubic feet (so about ~.8 cents per cubic feet). So not a huge saving if you are only doing one small bed. However, I feel like I have a little better control of what is in the garden and hopefully a slightly better mix. Honestly, it is very hard to start if you just want to get into it and don't have a resource like homemade compost. You can get really burned on bought compost (i.e., being hot or even having herbicides in them). If someone is starting off new and small (e.g., a single 4x4 bed), I normally just say buy something like Kellogg's raised bed or garden. At least if it does not work you can yell at them, and they might give you some money back or free products. You can also start to compost so that you can use it the next year. P.S. Bagged cheap compost manure is great to start your own compost pile. It usually is cheap, still a little hot, has the right stuff in it, and can speed up your first batch. I normally always start my new pile with half a bag of it.

Great explanation of the soils. After repotting my house plants this summer my house is now filled with nats. Where did they come from, the soil or from being outside for a week?

You should talk about hydro store products as they are the ones most avalible

I buy compost or top soil amended with compost at my local landscaping supply by the yard - have had very good results with it. For potting mix I make my own with coco coir, vermiculite, and perlite. I will be so sad if I ever have to start buying soil by the bag

Awesome subject

Which would you recommend for container potatoes? I have a very good organic potato fertilizer to add in. Thanks for the video!

Thank you!!!

I just found your channel. Thank you for the information!!

Is there an ideal way or proportion to create the best type of potting mix?

I recently bought some discounted bags (broke open) of mushroom compost. Can you tell me how the best way to use this medium? Thought about top dressing my raised beds this spring once I remove my fall/winter crops. Do you think this is a good idea? I understand that mushroom compost is usually several types of organic material, but do you think there are any good nutrients left for my garden veggies?

i have steady supply pf vermicast, compost, humic acid, and i buy cheap potting mix, and im all good. shout out from the Philippines.

*QUESTION ? What do you think about the company Fox Farms Soils or PRO Mix bales ? Thank You !*

im about to get a bunch of landfill compost to mix into my new raised beds

After I wash my sheets I add 1/2” of Foxfarm Ocean Forest to my bed. It smells so good and helps keep me grounded 😋

Unfortunately the "top soil" in the bags at the box stores has changed. It used to fill depressions in the lawn and grow grass well. Came out very black, contained a fair bit of sand, was cheap and worked well. THEN suddenly these bags seem to contain what is essentially very fine mulch. It does NOT fill depressions well, it does NOT grow grass well.

My soil grew a bunch of moss on top over the winter, do I work that stuff back into the soil when I start planting this spring or do I need to remove it?

Your prices are amazing. Here in the Boise area you'll spend $3.50 for a 1 cu. ft. bag of top soil and $12.97 for a 2 cu. ft. of raised bed mix. A 3 cu. ft. bag of peat moss is $23.97. A tiny bag of vermiculite is $8.97 and a tiny bag of perlite is about the same.

Have you ever considered making a video on espalier fruit trees?

Fox Farm 🤦‍♂️ I needed this video a few months ago.

in San Diego we NEED water holding ability!!

What do you think about compost made from bio solids? EKO brand is the most prevalent here and I believe it is made from bio solids.