Dirt is Dirt is Dirt… right?
Aug 30th, 2009 by No-L
WRONG.
As you know, or now will, I have been gardening all summer. Now I am a little concerned about my garden at this point in the summer, mostly due to the fact that SoCal is super warm now, and I’m not there. I’ve sent emails off to several people, in the hopes that my babies (my plants) will get watered. I just planted two different kinds of basil too! Here’s to hoping!
Anyway, my garden is all in pots, on my deck, and there are some veggies and some flowers. I want to do more veggies next year, including squash and more herbs, string beans (versus the bush beans I have now), and heirloom tomatoes. And I will take all I’ve learned this year, obviously, and hopefully grow more and better plants next year! When I started my deck garden, I got pots and boxes from OSH, along with dirt. When I went to OSH, I got all confused, because where I grew up, dirt is dirt is dirt. There’s no difference! But at OSH, there are so many kinds. And mulch. And compost. And this potting soil and that potting soil. Yeah, I was all kinds of confused. Some potting soil is for short pots, some for tall pots. The tallest pot I purchased is like 2 feet, maybe? So, I bought the dirt for 12”+ pots, and I bought some compost-type dirt, to mix in. That was my first round of planting. I thought most things were going okay, until my dad came for a visit in May. We re-potted everything. We used potting soil from Lowe’s for this, though. It was closer than OSH, and that’s where we went. Let me tell you, dirt is not dirt is not dirt. No, the Lowe’s potting soil and compost are NOTHING compared to the OSH potting soil and compost. The OSH soil holds water much better, and the plants respond better to it. I was over watering my peas, and because the soil is so much better in that box, they molded (yes, that part sucks). I removed the plants, but also dropped a few peas into the soil. They sprouted! On their own! I have now planted three kinds of basil in that box too. Again, I hope they’re all okay in the heat in SoCal!! The difference in dirt is pronounced enough that I have pictures of it.
In addition, I think that the compost from Lowe’s sprouts mushrooms. Weird. Not sure if I like them or not. I’m not going to eat them, though, that’s for sure! I do know that there are some of the horned worms in probably both kinds of dirt, and they like to gnaw on tomatoes. I probably incurred some bad karma when I chucked them out of the pots during repotting onto the street. (I’ll say Hail Mary’s later.)
All in all, if you have a choice of soils to use, don’t use Lowe’s. I think that dirt from my aunt & uncle’s house is probably the best, but since it’s not feasible for me to get a dump truck of their dirt delivered to LA, I’ll go with OSH. I will post pictures upon my return regarding the dirt. Lowe’s Dirt vs OSH Dirt.
For more pictures, my Garden Collection on my flickr page has the garden at different stages. I’ll update that with pictures of the garden after my return to Cali… hopefully not everything will be dead. Those pictures, I just realized, are very old. I will update them soon.