On Saturday, July 6, 2013 6:12:30 AM UTC-7, Farm1 wrote:
"Higgs Boson" wrote in message

...

I had always snobbishly regarded potting soil as something marketed to

apartment dwellers or people who didn't understand gardening.



Now have to re-evaluate.



I made a rectangular planter in wood shop years ago. About twice the size

of the redwood planters sold in stores. Today gardener helped me get it

back on wheels (from which a (*&^%#%&* person had removed it -- don't

ask!!). Very heavy.



He said it was because I was using ordinary garden soil; said potting soil

would be much lighter. Said it would work just as well.



QUESTIONS: a. Is potting soil just as good as garden soil (assuming

garden soil

is OK)?



b. Is it worth replacing x% of garden soil with potting?



c. Or remove and replace all?



d. Leave it alone.



I am NOT looking for work!!! Planter is back on wheels and can be moved,

with some difficulty. For now, just asking if anyone agrees with

gardener's opinion potting soil vs garden.



I almost always use potting soil in pots. There are several reason for

this. Firstly, when I've used either my home made compost or soil, I get

growth of other things in addition to what I really want to grow. For

instance, at the moment I am growing some ginger in a pot in my sun room and

since I found the ginger sprouting healthily IN my compost heap, I just

potted it up using the compost in which it was growing and put the pot in

our sun room (although I think I added some potting mix, I know that it has

a lot of compost and it's a big pot). In that same pot, I now also have 3

gorgeous looking tomato plants as well (it's mid winter here so they are

quite confused). I also have some dill and a couple of other things that

I'd need to go and look at to refresh my mind about what they are - all have

come up from seeds in the compost. I cant' make a hot compost to save

myself but then I dont' mind these sorts of volunteer plants.



Another reason why I use potting mix is the weight factor that you have

mentioned. As a 60+ aged female with no paid help in a large garden I have

to be able to move quite big pots around by myself. I have a stair climber

type trolley but that is the only lifting device I have other than my own

muscles with have held up so far (touch wood). I'm reasonably strong for a

woman of my age, but I'd rather not tempt fate too often because as one

ages, an injury is harder to recover from.

Great story, Farm 1 !!

(I gather you are in the same hemisphere as David Hare-Scott? I spent the summer of [censored] in EnZed and OZ, and would LOVE to go Down Under again. Whatta fab trip!

OT: Uluru is fine, if glitzy, but I got to Ayers Rock before they demolished that great old Wild West center right near the Rock. ISTR there was still a bullet hole behind the bar where somebody had crashed into the bar on horseback?

(Wrenches self away from Memory Lane)

You're right that garden soil can bring volunteers with it -- some desirable, some less so. But the big planter (not pot) I'm talking about has been there so long that I have pretty much got rid of most noxious weeds; need only pull the occasional pop-up after watering.

Happy gardening! Give my regards to (where are you exactly -- if not intrusive)

HB