I’m a gardening pro – you can make your own potting soil for half the cost, I grow my plants with it
A GARDENING expert shared her method for making potting soil for the low.
She said she’s able to make high quality soil for less than the cost of even the cheapest soil at the store.
London (@londonspriorities) shared her DIY recipe in a video with over 700,000 TikTok followers.
She explained that she prefers to make her own potting soil not only for transparency of what’s in the soil, but also to keep a low budget.
She started off pricing the cheapest potting soil she could find at Lowe’s at 480 quarts for her recipe.
“Sta-Green Perfect Potting Mix, 25 quart potting soil… that’s as close as we can get for 480 quarts,” she said, pointing at the $200 price tag.
“No wonder y’all think gardening’s expensive as sh**,” she joked.
Navigating over to an inflatable swimming pool, the gardener said she has a better way to make soil for less: “I’m going to show you how to fill this up four times, which will equal 480 quarts for 90 bucks.”
She started off with a bag of Sphagnum Peat Moss for just $19: “This big a** thing is going to last you forever, you’re only gonna use an eighth of this bag,” she said.
Next came two 8 quart bags of Perlite Soil Amendment for $22 and two Minute Soil+ Amended Compressed CoCo Coir blocks for $48 total.
“Baby these blocks expand to 15 gallons each,” she said.
Last but least, she said the most important ingredient is compost, which can be made for free at home.
First, she soaked the CoCo blocks with gallons of hot water, then while the mixture soaked, she sifted out 18 gallons of compost.
Next, she added three gallons of Sphagnum Peat moss into the pool, making sure to break it down super fine.
She then proceeded to add in the CoCo Coir, as well as 2 gallons of Perlite.
For fun, London mixed the soil the old-fashioned way: with her feet in the pool.
People took to the comments to share their thoughts.
“I started to use to CoCo Coir this year also, love it!” said one commenter.
“Thank you!! This helped so much,” said another.
“I do the same except I add earthworm castings,” said a third.
“It looks like what I buy at Lowes,” admitted a fourth.