The production of homemade potting soil

Spring is the time for seeds and sowing. So it's also the best time to create your natural soil. We are going to learn how to make homemade potting soil for the sake of the garden's autonomy. The garden is a complex ecosystem and sensitive to many changes. Some have decided to integrate garden ponds to bring more freshness and life. Water being the base.

It is possible to create a rich soil at home that will allow your seedlings to germinate and develop healthily. This simple recipe involves mixing equal parts of garden soil. A portion of compost and coffee grounds.

So the production of potting soil is relatively simple. The elements are broken down into identical volumes, for example a bucket of natural soil, a bucket of coffee grounds, a bucket of compost, etc...

To proceed, we will need compost, a bucket of soil from the garden. A shovel, a wheelbarrow and a sieving system. If you don't have one, you can use a simple framed chicken wire.

• Start by sifting the soil in your garden to get rid of its hardest and bulkiest elements, such as pebbles or roots.

• Now pass the compost through a sieve.

• The sifted soil and compost are now in your wheelbarrow. Water and mix. Repeat until the soil reaches the desired texture. It does not stick to the hands and its texture is fine and lumpy. The horticultural soil will allow us to keep a moist set over a longer period. The horticultural soil retains water, it is a sponge. We can also use sand to allow drainage.

You need a substrate base, a horticultural substrate that you find in a classic bag. So be careful, don't take the cheaper ones because they are very rude. The objective is to have fine soil, horticultural soil that has been sifted.

If your soil is clayey or heavy, you can add a part of sand. This will facilitate drainage and make the soil lighter. Your potting soil is ready to use.

 

The use of coffee grounds.

The coffee grounds will both drain and bring us, of course, some mineral elements. And that will allow us to obtain a substrate that will be balanced. Homemade. To use the coffee grounds, of course, they are dried.

The objective is simple: you collect all your coffee grounds. They have dried well, it gives you a nice powder. The purpose of using coffee grounds It is twofold, of course it should be organic coffee grounds, not decaffeinated, because some coffees as you might expect have undergone certain chemical processes to remove the caffeine .

Coffee grounds are useful for controlling slugs. So be careful, because if you put too much, you will annoy the hedgehogs. They will eat slugs which will have contained caffeine which could cause them high blood pressure. It's not terrible for the hedgehog.

So, we can use coffee grounds for slugs, but above all we can make a very nice breeding ground. And this coffee grounds will allow me to bring elements. Not much, but mostly nitrogen. And above all, to bring volume to our soil. You can fill your seed trays and grow your seeds.

Reuse used potting soil

We are now going to study how to reuse the used potting soil. This soil, although it has already been used to grow seedlings, still contains beneficial fertility and microbial life. When the seed tray is emptied of young shoots, put this old compost aside. When you have a sufficient amount of old potting soil to proceed with the next mix, one part of old potting soil. One part sifted garden soil and one part compost. It is important to store the soil correctly so that it retains its fertility and the microbial life, which should be stored in a shady place sheltered from the wind.