From the North of England. I am 85 , my grandmother was born in 1884 and we always used the same method and used the soil over and over . A hand full of bone meal and a hand full of fish, blood and bone , and you are set for another year ! Cheap and it works !

Ernie died in the 80's, and had a compost pile, and I heard he had pride in his compost. I decided to throw it in the garden about the year 2000, and plant tomatoes. I got multiple grocery bags of tomatoes, and was drowning in tomatoes, in my first garden. It was actually too easy. I think it warped my thinking, that you could plant, and things grow. (lol). I also took his 20 year old seeds, and threw them out in the garden I was not using. Things grew out of control.

Over 2M views and only a little over 190,000 subscribers?? Come on people. Give his channel some love and subscribe!!

I am an adult home gardener but had difficulty finding a true meaning of “weed”. A weed is ANY plant that you don’t want to grow in your garden. 😊Thanks

Last year, I acquired a new, very large, and very deep raised bed. It was going to cost me a small fortune to fill it. But then I had a stroke of genius. My mom had numerous pots she wanted dumped out into the blackberry brambles. Instead, I dumped them into the new bed. I added kitchen scraps all winter long. When the time came to plant potatoes, I simply added 3 inches of soil to the top and planted them. I then filled the rest of the bed with straw (Ruth Stout Method) and watered everything down. I didn't spend a fortune filling the bed with soil, and the extra height of the walls keeps the straw in place over the potato plants. That bed is THRIVING! Our compost bins are always growing potatoes, so I figured they would probably do ok with a compost "bin" for a foundation layer. It appears that I was correct. At least so far.

I dumped all of my old soil from pots into a raised bed, added coco coir, dried mint leaves, some organic tomato fertilizer and azomite. Why mint? Because it smelled good 😊and I was hoping it will keep bugs away. Tomatoes grew to over 8 feet tall and had unbelievable harvest from 7 plants enough to fill a small chest freezer and more to give away.

Thank you very much. At least 20 or 30 years ago I was somehow educated to bake potting soil in the oven before reusing it from year to year. I did that for awhile and will never know why. But it was ridiculously burdensome and seems to defy logic. For another few years I bought new potting soil every single season and discarded the old soil . I could kick myself. We couldn't afford that and it was so stupid. Believe it or not I"m a dietitian professionally so I"m all about nutrition ! But the marketers got to me and I was convinced I needed brand new soil every year. Now years later I'm not as ignorant; I have learned more and better. I revere soil and it's complexity. I have two enormous botanical garden- like properties and I grow everything imaginable. Your instruction aligns with everything I think is right and it's helpful to me, and I'm sure to others. Thanks for sharing your wisdom.

This is the first of your videos I've watched. I wanted to thank you for the high-quality information.

It is mind boggling to me that someone would throw out dirt. 🤯🤯 In my large containers I add eggshells in the fall and food scraps through fall and winter. With my flower pots, in the spring I dump all the pots in a wheelbarrow and sift it all together with some amenities. And it grows really well.

Just amazing! 1.9 million views. Just proves that people need to know how to do stuff. I plan to do more videos like this next year. God bless!

An absolute benchmark of how to make a great KZfaq video. Thank you.

Good video. You may want to consider: 1. wear mask to not breath the fertilizers, and 2. use gloves - I've read stories of people getting sick from not doing so (even though I often forget to wear them too :-) Take care and good work.

This may be the best 20 minutes I've spent learning about growing healthy plants, and the science behind it. He's thorough, very well spoken, and presents easily understood, very useful information. The video is great, and shows all the details very clearly. Sharing this with friends. Much appreciated!

Very good1. I'm a lifelong container gardener & this info is just what I need in my small patio garden.

My grandparents were gardeners their whole life. I was spoiled with good vegetables , fruits, etc. They say gardeners live a long life. My grandparents lived into their late 90s.

Perfect! No more arguing with the wife about using last year's potting soil mixed in with fresh bag soil. Thank you, sir.

Human bodies need all these minerals as well! Our soil is SO DEPLETED! Can't get it from commercial food. Thank you for sharing!

I’ve reused the potting soil in my 3 pots (about 5 gallons each) for years. Each Spring, I mix in some new compost in the top inch or two. I regularly add crushed eggshells and occasionally some organic fertilizer. I have tomato cages in the pots, but I don’t grow tomatoes. I grow pea pods, pole beans, cucumbers (especially lemon cukes), garlic, green onions, radishes, basil, and other small stuff. I usually use 2 tomato cages, one on top of the other for height. This really works for this lady who can’t dig anymore. Thanks for the great video!

This is the video I was looking for. I wasn't sure if I needed to remove the wood mulch from last year's planting, and now I know that I need to remove the mulch that made its way into the soil as well. Very helpful, thank you so much.

I see this video is 2 yrs old and you wanted 100,000 subscribers now you have 2.4 million that’s great 😂 I really learn alot from you thanks for the info.

I love that you reinforce what I've learned and also reminding me of something. lol.

Really excited to reuse old potting soil!. Thanks, Scott.

Love the flexibility and freedom from narrowly constrained rules expressed.

Hi Scott! I want to thank you for sharing your knowledge with the world! I've learned so much! 😊

Compost tea?? Oh man, that’s a whole new level! So informative. Glad I found you!

I know a couple who rake up their leaves and place them in a black plastic bag. Placed against the house in the sun. After the winter, they then dump into their raised beds and place their starts directly into the leaf mold. No soil. Their plants grow fantastic. 😮

Great video Scott! It's nice to be in your garden!

I really loved watching you .I'm old school an I agree with you big time . Ppl are spending big money in the GARDEN . IM THINKING OF OPENING A GARDEN CENTER AN HAVE GLASSES . I HATE SEEING PPL GET RIP OFF ....ANYWAYS SHAREING IS CAREING .T.Y.

I am an old grain farmer. Farmers NEVER throw out soil. We add nutrients- usually fertilizer or manure. We often rotate crops to avoid spread of some diseases, but we often do not rotate. Sometimes we get a little lower yield by not rotating, but we still get a crop. Duane

Very helpful. I've been throwing out the old potting soil at the end of every growing season. After watching this will change my ways to reuse the potting soil.

Great video! Thank you, I really needed this information!

Hi Scott! I want to thank you for sharing your knowledge with the world! I've learned so much!

I’m SO GLAD I came across your channel! I do live in the Southwest desert. Gardening has always been a challenge for me. And I’m really not that good at it. But I’m really hoping to learn more from you! Thank you for posting these videos!😁👍👍

My grandparents & great-grandparents used all these methods very successfully. That's why I do most of them too! Glad to know you do too. Thanks for a great educational vid as always.

Fascinating, thank you!

Great video Scott. From UK

Okay, this entire video is gold. I have struggled so much understanding the micro-happenings of soil because it’s always taught so objectively! I FINALLY am getting it!! You are a fantastic teacher, thank you for doing as soil life does to compost: breaking it down! Adhd/Autistic people like me have accessibility to this important science when educators take time like you do!

I usually throw the contents of old pots on my compost pile and mix it in. Then I have a ready made soil mix when I sift the compost. It’s worked well so far.

great video, very useful info and well presented. thank you. May your garden grow!

I just happened to see your channel. I got interested to keep watching you other videos. Charles the owner of IV products I know in person. Very nice guy he is. Your gardening method with pep talks and coding the Bible I also enjoy. Thank you.

I had a very serious tomato nematode issue last year from re-using expensive potting mix. This year I have been placing my old mix-filled grow bags into 5 gallon buckets with a few small drainage holes in the bottom. Then I pour about 2 gallons of boiling water on top of it all to kill out soil virus and critters. It all stays very hot for some time. Then I pour it all onto a large, heavy duty plastic sheet in the garage and let it dry our a few days. It no doubt washes out some remaining nutrients thus I re-fertilize before planting. So far so good. I have harvested over one-hundred tomatoes plus Kale, Arugula, Basil and green onions out of my spare bedroom this winter so far...more coming! I use cheap LED grow lights over the 2x8 foot grow area and surround the whole thing with cheap reflective "space blankets."

Great to know about spider mites. Thank you for that!

Good informative site....No stupid music or useless personal information 😎

Great video, Scott.

I add “old soil” to my compost pile. Just the reverse you mentioned. I also saw you use azomite. I use a ton of that stuff. I always crack up when people say leaf litter, here in Tucson, Az I don’t see a tree as far as I can see. I always set my pots under a tree if possible so the good stuff that leaches out when watering doesn’t go to waste.

Moving up the ladder of fertility, I put 20-50 redworms in the pot. I let them revitalize the soil for me. This works good as long as you keep it watered and not let it dry completely out. They will die off in the winter if well below freezing, however you will find worms again in the spring as the eggs they laid hatch. It works really well. I even use them in my microgreen trays ; )

Praying that you will feel better soon💞❤️‍🩹💞

We here in central VA have hardly had a real winter, yet, end of February.😪

Found you channel accidentally today. I'm subbed to many others but always learn something new. God be with you and your family during these challenging times. Being as self-sufficient as possible relieves stress & anxiety about the predicted upcoming food shortages. Thanks again. Have a beautiful day. (I forgot the question I wanted to ask, oh well, another day) 🙏🤗

I'm in UK and have been doing just this for years. I always have bins or bags full of old compost resetting itself. People think I'm mean with money or mad but why waste it? This is really interesting to watch and thanks for proving me right. Love your advice.

great video! I LOVE YOUR CORGI!!!!

Thank you! Great thorough teaching.

Great tips for soil success. Loved to learn these. Keep it up, we need folks who know what to do with our plants and the dirt of gardening.

I have been recyling potting soil for 30 years never had a problem !

This was very educating and put some confidence in many of the ideas I have as a beginner, thank you very much. For everyone living in a city and planting on a balcony, I can't recommend vermiculture composting in boxes enough, I do it in a small studio appartement for a year and never had any problems. This year I want to try to put a worm vase build out of an old pipe with holes in my newly build 90 liter raised bed, so all the good stuff is produced right where it's needed, but I will see if this will work like I imagine (this wasn't my idea and instructions are probably out there). Also, and I don't know if this is a thing in other parts of the world, but in my city I can get 100 liter or more of certified green-waste-compost for just 2€. Aand lastly, in my city in northern germany molehills on grasslands and in parks consist of very fine, stoneless clay(? feels velvety and holds water extremely well) and I collected them to use them as a free condiment in very small amounts in my potting soil and vermiculture compost to hopefully get some good minerals for free.

This is is my second watching! I remembered this video and searched to find again, so helpful Thank you

This was very helpful. Thank You

I've been utilizing your first method for years, now that I'm retired, I can learn more about using some fertilizers. Glad I found your channel.

I love your Corgi!

Awesome info!! Thanks!! I just learned yesterday that it needs that fungi stuff! I'm 40 and just now getting into gardening. I never thought it was cost efficient. Especially being a single mom for 15 years and never making much more than minimum wage, no help from her father, and paycheck to paycheck all my life lol I ended up spending a few hundred of my tax return (thinking I was making a long term investment) buying everything I thought I needed. 2x8s for 4'x8' raised bed, raised bed dirt, big and little pots, potting soil, (no perlite because at that time I thought it was for looks, and hated it 😂) fertilizer, seeds, 2 started blueberries and 5 started sugar plum(?)tomato bushes. After all that money and time, all I got was 40-50 sugar tomatoes and 5 carrot's... That were around 3-4 inches long and an inch wide. Lol That was in 2016. Everything was dead within 3 months so apparently I don't have a clue what I'm doing lol

This channel is AWESOME !! And I need it !! Growing a patio herb garden...and yes I've made mistakes ...LIKE BUYING NEW SOIL EVERY YEAR !! OMG I don't even wanna talk about it !! 😫 I didn't know !!!.....

I wish you included links to sellers of the products you use. We could find them easily and you could make a little profit. Thanks for sharing your expertise!

You're a great teacher and your Corgi is adorable! TYVM from Long Island NY. Looking forward to Spring to get gardening again

I enjoyed this video again since last year! Had a great tomato haul last year!!! Ahna

I've been reusing soil for along time. Was glad to see you made a video explaining and show how this is done. Geat Job!

How can I give this more likes? !!! Thank You so much for a very understandable, relatable, comprehensive overview of soil ammending. So Cal zone 9b, coldish winters, hot summers, dry, dry, dry all the time. My soil is gonna rock this year. Thank you!!

Good solid advice given in a clear and practical manner. Cheers Scott!

Fantastic thanks! 😊

Thank you .. greetings from The Netherlands.🌹

I am moving to Florida and decided to bring a garbage can full of my New York soil with me. There is something about the soil that was in my back yard it is nothing like the soil in my Florida home . I will only be using it with favorite plants !

Yeah, our front yard is sandy loam but our back yard, all the way to the creek is black gumbo. Hate digging it in the Summer.

Great video, thanks Scott! All the best from Finland!

I've reused last year's potting soil this year by filling my pots about a third to a half full with the old stuff, mixed in some slow release feed, and then the rest I filled with new soil. My vegetables sit in the new stuff, but the root system will slowly work its way down to the old stuff. I did this mainly to keep the cost of new soil down. Fingers crossed.

Great information! Thank you for showing us not just telling us how to prepare and plant fora great harvest.

Don't forget the worm castings!

Watch older videos, so much to learn and remember, thank you!!

This is a great video !! very well explained and i watch alot of homesteaders and gardening vlogs. you are the first person to explain how to reuse and revitalize your soil. Thank you so much.

Great video! You got to the point promptly, didn't repeat the same thing over and over. Excellent video. I learned a lot. Thank you.

I do this, my son is an arborist and I have gotten tree mulch to use on the garden in its rest periods to keep weeds at bay and bulk up the soil. I also grow brassicas in pots. put them in the shade house, and out into the sun each day. I use the ash from the fire box, bought lime, just a little of each, droppings from the chook house, plus bought sheep and chicken pellets. This year I have started to use more of the instant liquid fertilizer and it has cured the plants that have yellowing leaves. My spinach and silverbeet are really green. I have made weed tea, ensuring that no seeds are in the liquid. I love gardening and eating what I have grown. I only have a small garden sieve so its pretty labor intensive, but I have time. I thank you for your explanation and watching you doing it has helped a lot.

Great for the garden

Great video! Years ago I co-owned a Garden Center with my spouse (1983-1995, when I divorced) We sold so many products to improve one’s garden and container pots. What I learned stayed with me. Fast forward to 2005 I returned my hands into the soil and growing primary in containers. I took my container plants to am apartment where I really used the methods of recycling potted soil. I used a large storage bin in which to basically do weekday was shown in this video, screening soil, adding compared materials, etc etc. I lived in that apartment for almost 4-years. I often tossed/turned the binned soil with dead leaves, old flowers & stems that created a compost. Being a frugal person I often repotted my plants and used old B&W print newspaper (shredded) in the bottom of an empty pot/container, topped with a few old leaves to cover the drainage holes (yet still allowing drainage) Generally I waited for spring to do my patio clean up and repotting. I never had to buy bagged potting mix. As the video details, the nutrients created within the recycled and compared soil feed my plants. Whether I grew annuals, perennials, or potted vegetables I had great success, in addition to obtaining wonderful earthworms that help to feed the soil with their "droppings" and create air pockets in the containers and the compost bin I created. I them moved to another apartment with my compost bin and plants in tow. I lived there another 10-years without the need to buy bagged soil. It's amazing how nature creates is own nutrients! My boyfriend and I are buying his grandparent's home soon and I'm so excited to build raised beds in the backyard and resume growing plants and veggies again. Sadly I want able to bring all of my plants and my compost with me, yet others are enjoying them. Again, great video!

Really appreciate this video. Several of my houseplants that I repotted this a few months ago have dead soil - nothing goes into the soil, or is retained - I've been looking for ways to amend my soil, and your video is my answer! I have a pretty good idea of where you get your products, since I live to the east of 45 from you. Looking forward to getting some Azomite. I've composted for years, but, Ive never used it. I like making dirt, and having earthworms for my garden areas. Thanks Neighbor ! 😁

Great informative video. hello from the U.K. 🙋🏼‍♀️

Great stuff!

Very inspiring and knowledgable. Have been disposing most used compost and it seemed a waste of money. Thanks for the intelligent information.

Loved this video. I’m constantly throwing potting soil into the “heap” and buying new mix. So simple. Thank you. From Australia.

Love n blessings from Sydney Australia.

Great tips, thank you!

I am watching you from Japan. The brand names will be different here, but I think I can find most of the ingredients. Thanks for the tips!!!

All these years, I've just thrown it in my yard to fill the holes the dogs love to dig. Might try this to save $.

Well done,Sir.

Hello there good to see you again.

This last year we mixed old potting soil to compost that we had composted ourselves. All my containers this last summer had that mix in it and my containers did great! 😍

We love to add compost and worm castings.

This pot gardening is new to me. This recycling used pot and old soil is very frugal and preserving. Thanks. I am in the city with a small backyard. This has given the possibility of success that will effect the resources for 2 or 3 generations.

This the first video of yours I've seen. Very informative. You know what you're talking about. I will watch more. Thanks!

My current method is rotation: Let the 'batch' (season) rest for a year and a half. So alternate the batches. Have another lawn/leaf compost pile I mix in, in the spring. So basically 2 piles of soil, one in use other resting.

Just subscribed. Awesome video. I have a black plastic 55 gallon barrel in my backyard with plenty of holes drilled in it. I put in my yard waste and kitchen scraps throughout the year. I often add used soil from small pots between the layers as the year goes on. Worms find their way and proliferate on their own. In the spring I screen the compost through a wire mesh stucco frame. Then I add plenty of perlite and organic fertilizer before adding it to my no dig raised beds in the spring. So, the used soil becomes infused with worm castings and nutrients. I try to empty, turn and return the compost to the barrel several times a year to add oxygen. I recently started adding urine for extra nitrogen and I'm saving water by not having to flush the toilet nearly as often.

I just found you & I am happy to get good tips.😊 I have gardened all my adult life 73 now & am growing in pots. Thanks for the info ❤😂 19:53 😅 19:53

Hi Scott. Just going back through old video's to refresh my memory before spring. With the price of groceries now on 2024, we are going to my moms place and setting up a raised bed and container garden so she has access to fresh vegetables and a good hobby too without alot of work for her to maintain. Hope all is well with you and yours , we haven't seen you on much recently. Hope this years garden does well for y'all.