Hi, it’s Julien.
This week was tough for many of us on our island.
A category 4 hurricane ravaged through the northern part of our country, destroying homes and infrastructure.
Now, we’re in the process of cleaning up, rebuilding, and supporting our neighbors.
Thankfully, we were not completely cut off from the outside world… this time.
However, I was reminded of the importance of being a bit more self-reliant.
So, in today’s issue, we’ll discuss one of the most important steps in growing your own food at home.
🌿 Choosing Potting Mix for Your Kitchen Garden
Picking the right mix is crucial because it helps your plants grow strong and healthy. There are basically two options:
1. Ready-Made Potting Mix
Most ready-made potting mixes you find in stores are great for container gardening.
They’re made primarily of compost, peat moss, or coconut coir. This makes them light, fluffy, and safer to use since most don’t contain actual soil.
This is good because it helps with drainage and prevents your plants’ roots from getting too soggy.
A ready-made mix is an excellent choice if you want something easy to use and access.
2. DIY Compost Mix
If you’re looking for a budget-friendly option, you can make your own potting mix at home. Here’s a simple recipe:
- Compost: This is the main ingredient. It’s full of nutrients and microorganisms that help your plants grow.
- Manure: Adds extra nutrients to the mix.
- Coarse Materials (like perlite): Helps with drainage, so water doesn’t sit in the soil and cause root rot.
Mix one part of these ingredients together, and you have a great DIY potting mix!
⚠️ Tip On Using Soil In Containers
Soil is not recommended for use in containers or included in most potting mixes.
However, you can use regular soil for your containers, but you’ll need to mix it with equal amounts of organic material, such as compost.
Also, adding coarse materials like perlite, sand, charcoal, and larger pieces of organic materials to your mix can help improve drainage, add nutrients, and prevent it from compacting.
Try to avoid heavy clay soils. They easily compact and dry into rock-hard masses, making it hard for your plant roots to grow.
💡 Need More Ideas?
If you want more detailed information about potting mix, check out my article on Potting Soil For Container Gardening. It’s a beginner’s guide loaded with tips on types of potting mix, how to reuse it, and much more.
📸 Photo Of The Week
My Golden Dewdrop plants are in full bloom. I got cuttings of these plants a couple of years ago but only recently learned their names.
They make a beautiful fence but require a bit of trimming to keep it in check.
📋 Weekend To-Do List
Do you have a recommendation to share with other guide readers? Please submit it here; it might be featured on next week’s list.
📚 Read: You do not need to throw away your used potting soil each season. You can revitalize it instead. View Tutorial
📺 Watch: Hurricane Beryl hammered our sister islands and the northern part of our island. Here is a report with some footage taken earlier this week. Watch Video
🌱 Plant: Ginger is very useful for its culinary and medicinal uses. Best of all, it is easy to grow, even from store-bought rhizomes. View Instructions
📧 Did I Miss Anything?
I welcome your comments and suggestions, which will help improve the newsletter. Also…
Send me a message with any topic, photo or question you’d like featured in future issues.
And remember, my newsletter goes out every Friday morning.
Until next week, take care, stay safe, and keep growing!
