Homemade Potting Soil

Wow, the first warm/hot day of spring arrived, the temperature hit 73 degrees in the garden today. And, the flurry of spring garden activity surely satisfies a longing that lingers through the cold, dark days of winter.

Getting pots ready for summer plantings means preparing potting soil. Here's a recipe I mixed up this morning and have been filling pots and planting all day while humming a sweet song to all our women ancestors who cared and tended earth for soooooo long before we got here.

2 - 5 gallon buckets peat moss
1 - 5 gallon bucket aged goat manure, any kind will work
1 - 4 gallon bucket worm castings
1 - 4 gallon bucket maple leaves (thoroughly scratched by chickens all winter)
2 - 1 gallon buckets perlite
2 cups lime
2 cups kelp
1 cup bone meal

Mix all ingredients together well. Fill pots and plant. Enjoy!

Using as many garden offerings as possible, reducing the import loop and finding new ways to use everything!

• Do you have a favorite homemade potting mix? 
• How have you moved toward local ingredients? 
• Any favorites?

Here are some pictures of a wine barrel being prepared for dwarf grey sugar peas. A delicious snap pea with edible purple flowers. The central  upright stick is an elder cutting which looks like she just might grow!

Sun dried sheets, too! What a glorious day…I hope yours was fine and as much outside as possible.