Organic Potting Soil

IN THE YARD: Dig around for the best soil to buy

Anyone who has been to the garden shop to buy soil lately may have been confused by the number of choices available.

There are not many types to choose from, but making the right choice can make all the difference. Perhaps these tips will help with the selection.

POTTING SOIL: This is the general, all-purpose selection for almost all gardening situations. It tends to be more expensive than the others because of what has gone into the production of it. Potting soil generally contains both mineral soil particles and organic material. Some varieties will also contain fertilizers to feed plants for a few weeks.

Others may also have something added to help retain moisture to reduce watering needs. The minerals particles will help to prevent the soil from becoming compact and hard and help to maintain drainage. The organic materials will help to hold moisture and nutrients where the plants’ roots can find them.

Potting soil is the best all around choice for flower pots and other containers. It is also a good choice for raised bed gardens, but the expense may prevent this from being used alone. It can be mixed with native soils to improve them. For example, if the soil in the vegetable garden is mostly a hard red clay, potting soil can be added to improve the structure and the productivity of the soil.

TOP SOIL: The top soil bought in bags at the garden shop is not what most people envision when they think about top soil. Instead of the rich, fertile, well-drained, ideally-structured soil most of us expect from top soil, the stuff in the bags is all organic material.

When it gets wet it turns into a sticky mess that may look and smell more like the mud found in a swamp. The top soil bought in these bags is, for the most part, not intended to be used alone. This product is intended to be mixed with native soils to create what we need for our plants to grow.

Top soil bought in this way can be mixed with existing garden soil to improve the structure and other qualities of the soil. For lawn situations it can be used to fill small low areas or for a new lawn it can be mixed into the top inch or so of existing soil to help produce a better turf.

GARDEN SOIL: Most people who buy this produce say it is like buying mulch. In a way they are right. Garden soil started with finely ground tree bark. Then other organic materials and minerals are added to it. It generally drains faster than other soils which makes it good for starting seeds when used alone but for season long use it really should be mixed with existing soils to be effective.

Organic Mechanics Container Blend Potting Soil!

The second product we introduced to the Organic Mechanics brand was our Container Blend Potting Soil. Launched in 2008, Container Blend (CB) was built for use in outdoor containers. It has increased drainage as compared to our Premium Blend Potting Soil, making it the natural choice for all your outdoor containers. CB has more aged pine bark and coconut husk fiber...less compost and worm castings...and was formulated for growing perennials, grasses, & woody plants. We constantly hear reports of people using CB to grow native plants, especially perennials, without having to add fertilizer, yet still experiencing solid growth and flowering. However, if you are like me and jam a lot of small perennials into a giant container, you may want to give the plants a little bit of organic granular fertilizer, or liquid fertilizer like kelp, worm casting tea, or fish emulsion to ensure the container overflows with growth. We pioneered Organic Mechanics Container Blend while working with The Scott Arboretum of Swarthmore College, www.scottarboretum.org . Their horticulture experts use Container Blend in all the big containers on campus. They add additional slow release fertilizer to get these containers reaching their fullest potential each summer. I love their use of mixed containers, sometimes planting tropicals, annuals, perennials in one big container...love that plant exuberance! Another difference gardeners will notice in our Container Blend...we replaced the perlite (little white stuff) with rice hulls to make the mix more earth-friendly. These OMRI listed rice hulls are produced in the southern US, parboiled to get rid of weed seed and plant diseases, dried, compressed, and packaged for shipment. Giving these agricultural byproducts new life in our blends helps to lower our carbon footprint and gives the mix a lovely, fluffy texture. How does using rice hulls make our product more earth-friendly you might ask? Using them reduces the amount of perlite we use. Perlite is a silica ore, mined from the ground, shipped to processing facilities, and "popped like popcorn" by heating the crushed ore to tempertures above 1000 degrees fahrenheit! While rice hulls may not be ideal in all applications, it works wonders in our Container Blend Potting Soil. Even though we reduced the amount of compost and worm castings in this blend, you will still notice having to water much less as compared to peat-based mixes.

OMRI Products List

Rodale's All-New Encyclopedia of Organic Gardening, The Indispensable Resource for Every Gardener

Sugar Snaps & Strawberries, Simple Solutions for Creating Your Own Small-Space Edible Garden

Organic Gardening

Big Green Purse, Use Your Spending Power to Create a Cleaner, Greener World