xineohpoel
Power Conserver
- Joined
- Feb 28, 2009
- Messages
- 63
- Reaction score
- 0
- Points
- 34
A local gardening warehouse sells their old potting soil for 10.00 for a pickup truck load. The soil although still soft is tired. We get several truck loads and dump it into the garden in piles.
During the late fall/winter we let the chickens run in our fenced in garden. They spread this out and add some of their own fertilizer. Also for the coops I use composed pine needles/pine peat which is like peat moss only not so dusty and waterproof when dry. We dump this in the garden too.
The + comes in that usually there are live plants in the potting soil. From our last hauls I would say there were 300-400 mums of varying shapes/colors. outdoor plants, Poinsettias, houseplants, Christmas cactus, herbs, We use the plants and not resell though because they might cut us off if they knew we loved the plants in the soil. The plants we leave of course we let those just decompose and add back to this depleted soil.
To make the potting soil useful for houseplants here is my recipe.
1/2 five gallon bucket of potting soil
Pine peat and chicken compost the rest of the way
Sometimes a little sand if the plant likes fast drainage.
After you have planted something use my recipe for urine fertilizer and water the plant.
Check my dirt with a soil test kit to see where my PH and fertilizer levels are.
Watch the plants grow!
During the late fall/winter we let the chickens run in our fenced in garden. They spread this out and add some of their own fertilizer. Also for the coops I use composed pine needles/pine peat which is like peat moss only not so dusty and waterproof when dry. We dump this in the garden too.
The + comes in that usually there are live plants in the potting soil. From our last hauls I would say there were 300-400 mums of varying shapes/colors. outdoor plants, Poinsettias, houseplants, Christmas cactus, herbs, We use the plants and not resell though because they might cut us off if they knew we loved the plants in the soil. The plants we leave of course we let those just decompose and add back to this depleted soil.
To make the potting soil useful for houseplants here is my recipe.
1/2 five gallon bucket of potting soil
Pine peat and chicken compost the rest of the way
Sometimes a little sand if the plant likes fast drainage.
After you have planted something use my recipe for urine fertilizer and water the plant.
Check my dirt with a soil test kit to see where my PH and fertilizer levels are.
Watch the plants grow!