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Welcome to the Simple Garden Life podcast, a program dedicated to keeping the yard

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of gardening simple, fun and always
rewarding. Now Here are your hosts,

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Jim and Mary Competti. Hello and
welcome everybody to another episode of Simple Garden

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Life. I'm your host, Jim
Competti with my co host and wife Mary

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Competti, and today we are going
to talk about potting toa more importantly making

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your own potting toe, which is
something we've been doing and trying to perfect

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for for many years. But more
importantly Mary and I think this is key

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doing it without using Pete moss,
right, Pete moss is such a oh,

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it's just a tough it's a tough
topic right now. I mean everybody,

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you know, it's it's not a
renewable resource. It's made over thousands

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and thousands of years, and it
takes a lot of car there's a there's

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a whole environment or reason not to
be using Pete moss. But the good

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news is you don't have to write
and you can make you know, we're

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really talking about dirt today and potting
soil, and you know, being back

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at the farm is really getting us
geared up, you know, for garden

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Sea and planning flowers and pot of
plants. And you know, this is

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such a great topic because it's so
important. So many people ask us about

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our recipe. I think, in
fact, we just did an interview what

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about two weeks ago with the Washington
Post about using our recipe without having Pete

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Moss in it and how effective it
is. And I always love it because

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you know, this podcast is called
Simple Garden Life for a reason, because

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we try to keep things simple and
you get a lot of scientific people involved

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and what can work and what can't
work, And for us, it's always

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been one thing, and it's called
experience. It is and you know,

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Pete Moss has been around for years
and a lot of people have used it

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over the years, and you know, there's several reasons why not to use

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it, and we're here to tell
you today that you don't have to use

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it. Not when it comes to
potting so and we actually call this the

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best potting so around because again experience, we've used it year in and year

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out really good results. We'll get
into that before we get any farther.

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I do want to remind everybody with
your questions, always feel free to email

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us at the Farm at ow garden
dot com. You can also sign up

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to follow Simple Garden Life on any
of the major podcast apps. We're pretty

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much on them. Sign up follow. We do a new podcast every two

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weeks. It drops usually on Tuesday, and you know, we we have

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enjoyed it. We love getting the
emails when we get a lot of them

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from people all around. And this
was a topic that a lot of people

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ask us to kind of cover,
like how do you make your potting soil?

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Is it better to make your own
potting soil? Let's kind of go

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down that road first, Mary,
about making your own versus purchasing. First

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of all, if you can't make
your own, if it's not there are

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a lot of good potting soils on
the market. We're not here to change

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that out, but they can be
pretty expensive. Yeah, they're very expensive,

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and depending on how many pot of
plants do you actually plant in a

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year's time, it can really add
up. And one of the best ways

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to save money and grow the best
pot of plants around is to make your

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own potting soil at home. Yeah, and a lot of the ingredients is

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will get into today. You're going
to find out that you know, you

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can actually make them for free or
find them for free. Some you have

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to purchase. But at the end
of the day, well, we've found

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more than anything else beyond the cost
savings, and you're talking about two people

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that probably pop more plants than we
ever should we use this everywhere? But

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beyond that, I think for us, we've found that it's just that much

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better than commercial mixes because there's so
much powerboat into this potting soil. Um

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it's loose, it has all of
the things that you need into good potting

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soil, and you can just make
it right at home, right and when

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we're talking about potting soil, this
is to grow vegetables, flowers, herbs,

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or hanging baskets when you make your
own absolutely and you know, not

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just that. A lot of people, you know, blend this into their

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raised beds if they want to put
some extra soil in it. And at

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the end of the year, with
all that potting so ours all goes right

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back into our compost, which you'll
see as a major ingredient in our potting

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soil. But it's it's renewable,
recyclable, and very easy to keep,

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extremely powerful. So there's there's little
doubt that when you talk about potting plants

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or anything like that. That making
your own for us has always just been

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kind of a I don't want to
say, a badge of honor, but

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we're really proud of it because there's
nothing like making your own soil, then

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putting your own plants in and watching
something grow and maybe it's a vegetable it

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produces. Maybe if it's flowers,
they're they're big and bright and beautiful.

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But more importantly, it's a really
quality, good soil, right. And

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you know a lot of those commercial
products that you could buy have additives in

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the potting soil and you really don't
know what's actually in it. So I

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think that's a big point here.
It's like, when you make it yourself,

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you know what's in your soil,
you know what you grow. We

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talk about that all the time,
and you bring up another good point is,

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especially especially when you're growing vegetables in
those pots. It's one thing to

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say you're growing flowers and you're not
going to consume them, but I always

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encourage people to think full circle.
You know, you may not be growing

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vegetables in that potted flower this year, but that ends up in your compost

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spin and if there's materials in it
then aren't natural. They're going to go

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through your compost and they're going to
be an extra. So for it's always

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been peace of mind, make our
own. We know it's one hundred percent

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organic, we know it's in we
know what's in it, we know what

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we can put in it, we
know we can put in our compost piles,

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and we go from there, right
And you know a lot of those

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bags have added fertilizers, fungicides,
and other additives that are far from organic.

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And even if you're not an organic
gardener, and that's okay, just

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remember what you're eating also absorbs those
nutrients from from the soil and the additives

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from the soil. It does,
so, okay, I'll tell you what

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we're going to do right now.
Let's we normally get to our question a

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little bit later, but I kind
of want to get to our question of

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the week right now because it leads
into this potting soil. And I got

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to tell you, I think it
comes from Norman from Somerville, South Carolina,

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which is hilarious because Mary and I
love to go to Somerville. It's

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a wonderful place. It is a
wonderful place. So we saw this and

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then it was right on to Q
and we saw them like, we've got

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to use this as our question because
actually it's an incredibly good question. Mary,

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go ahead and read it here and
then we'll answer it. Sure.

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This is Norman Davis from Somerville,
South Caroline. Norman asks, whenever I

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purchase potting soil, there always seems
to be styrofoam or something that looks like

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it in my soil. Is it
organic? Or can I use that potting

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soil to grow vegetables and containers?
I love it, and Norman, it's

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a great question. We get it
a lot. I remember we received emails

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a few years ago when we were
talking about our potting soil recipe and they're

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like, well, it's not organic
because you have that styrofoam in your soil.

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I see the picture. So actually, what that is is actually a

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one hundred percent organic substance. It's
per light and it is actually volcanic glass

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that they simply heat up and they
explode it, and it's basically like popcorn

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right exactly. They heat it up
to like thirteen hundred degrees and it expands

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thirteen times of size. That it
originally was, and it's a great filler

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in soil because it allows the mixture
to expand. It allows the soil to

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be light and airy, and allows
water and roots to be able to develop.

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It. Yeah, it really loosens
that soil and lets them move.

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And more important, and you said
it best, it lightens the soil.

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So think about potted plants hanging baskets. You can't put heavy garden soil and

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then first of all, you're gonna
crack all your pots. Second of all,

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you can't move and you're gonna crack
your back. And but more importantly,

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when it's heavy soil for flowers or
vegetables, you want those roots to

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be able to grow quick. So
what perlite does in those soils, you

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said it lightens it up. It
keeps it a little bit easier, but

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it also helps the water channels it
makes it allows the water to get through.

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Perlite is magical. And here's the
best part of all. It never

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goes away. It does not rot, It does not go away. So

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when you buy perlite and you put
in your soil and it ends up in

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your compost spin, it's just going
to be there to continue to build soil.

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No, it doesn't at all,
and it is one hundred percent organic

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and it's not styrofoam norm and you
can rest ashore. We get that question

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a lot, so it's it's a
great question, and that's why we included

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it today. But it's one of
the key ingredients in our potting soil mix.

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But I want to go one step
further. We use per light in

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our raised beds in other areas to
help loosen thick soil. And it's great

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because we said it doesn't break down
right, and like you said, it

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allows the route to expand and develop
and grow strong, allows the water to

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come through. So one of those
great things to have in our garden at

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all times, potting soil or the
garden itself. Well, I heard the

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little symbol right there, so I
think that's time for an ad break.

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We apparently sometimes run a little long, so we get some warning, so

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we'll take a very quick ad break. We're going to be back. We're

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going to discuss exactly what should go
in your potting soil, right down to

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the ingredients and what each one is, and we'll be right back after this,

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all right, and we are back
talking about how to make your homemade

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potting soil. Five ingredients. That's
what we talk about all the time.

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It's five natural ingredients. And you
know we're going to go through I think

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Mary, you're going to read off
the actual recipe and what the ratios are.

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Look, I just want to really
say this. You can make as

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much or as little as you need
of this. Just use the ratios and

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keep them the same or are close
to the same. I always talk about

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gardening. It's not baking. It's
cooking. So when you cook, you

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can throw a little more hot pepper, and if you like that, you

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can throw when you bake. You
can't get away with that. But don't

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get so caught up with the exact
Like I think, I'm a little will

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If you get close to this ratio, you're going to have a wonderful potting.

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Someone mix is going to work.
So I think a lot of gardeners

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get scared off of all the scientific
terms and exact measurements. So we're here

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to tell you that. You know, once we give you this recipe,

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you can tweak it, just like
you said, just like in a cooking

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recipe, make it your own.
Well, I'm glad you said that,

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because you know This is a recipe
that we have kind of honed over the

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last ten to eleven years, and
really in the last few years we've settled

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in on this exact formula. And
I use the word exact, and I

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should, but the key is this
seems to be a really good ratio for

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us that makes a light, loose
but extremely powerful soil. So again,

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you can be a little off on
one or the other if you have to

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be, but just try to be
close to this. We're going to do

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this in cups, so we're going
to just show you like it's basically,

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you know, like like you're baking. So if you're going to make it

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up, it's six cups of this
or this, and we'll get into the

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recipe right now. But again,
just keep those ratios the same. If

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you've got to make a lot of
it, use six five gallon buckets and

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then move, you know, just
make the ratios equal. So, Mary,

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I think let's go through the ingredients
first and how much of each,

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and then we'll get into specifics.
It's five ingredients. It is five ingredients,

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and this is our oral garden homemade
potting soil recipes. I'm used doing

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recipes, not usually in gardening,
but we'll go for a time. I

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get to cook. Ye. So
the first thing that you're going to want

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to use is compost. Compost is
the key here. You're gonna use six

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cups of compost and then pulverized top
soil six cups of that as well,

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one to one ratio. Yeah,
that's the big part of this soil mix.

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So six cups of composts and six
cups of a soil of pulveroi.

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It's a loose soil weet. We'll
get into that a little bit. And

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then what else do we put in
that? Then we do two cups of

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each of worm castings, spent coffee
grounds, and the per light that we

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talked about earlier. So it's a
really simple formula. It's six six two

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two two and it's of each of
those ingredients. So six of the compost,

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six cups of pulfroy soil, and
then two cups each of coffee grounds,

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spent coffee grounds, per light,
and then we're the worm casting.

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So let's kind of get into why
and what. So let's talk about the

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compost. First. We talk about
compost. I think every single podcast it's

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amazing. It's black gold. It
is black gold. And the reason it's

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black gold is it has every nutrient
plant's need in the right amounts and most

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importantly, super easy to absorb those
nutrients into the plant. So compost is

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by far the key. Now,
if you have a compost pile at home,

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sifted a little bit to get a
little bit finer compost for your potting

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soil. You don't want big chunks
of half decayed things if it's animals.

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Um So, if you're purchasing it, and we'll have links on this on

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this podcast, on the article on
Simple Garden Life. Excuse me for the

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new article, um that that are
there if you have to purchase these things.

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But either way, you just want
a good compost around it, you

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know, a whole compost. If
you grow your own nets, fine or

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make your own excuse me, that's
that's more than fine. But you want

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it to be seeing sure it's a
completed compost pile as well. Yeah,

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not not fresh or anything like that. It's just got to be done and

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finished compost. So that's what it
starts with. And like I said,

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compost is the king. It's got
everything in it, It's got everything you

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need. And now we go to
the Paul roys topsil, which we get

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a lot of questions about this,
so I want to explain what this is.

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If you go into your local garden
center, a lot of times they'll

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have gardener soil, uh, and
it's not bulk, it's in bag.

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It might be called top soil,
Paul, you know, loose, it

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might be called garden soil. All
we're talking about here is a base soil

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that's that's loose, not clay.
Not going out to your garden and picking

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up a shovelful of it. You
want to get really good soil. Mix

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it may you can usually find it
bagged. It's fairly cheap too, but

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just make sure it's a decent soil
and it's naturally they don't have anything in

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it, right. And sometimes they're
also called filtered soil. Yeah, filtered

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soil. A lot of places have
it in bulk. You can buy it

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in bulk if you're gonna make a
ton of it. Bags are kind of

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easy when you're mixing it up.
That's all you really want here. So

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a six six ratio right there,
six cups of composts and six cups of

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soil. So the way we make
ours, we use a wheelbarrel. It's

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just really really easy, so you
know you're going to throw that in.

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We make a little bit bigger.
We do actually six five gallon buckets and

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six five gall but again the ratio
just keep it same. So you're gonna

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put six of six parts of compost
and six equal parts of the soil in

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first, and then we get to
the second things. We talked about perlite.

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We talked about what it does for
soil. So two cups of that,

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that's you're gonna mix that in and
you're gonna mix it all up,

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and what that's gonna do. It's
going to start to help some of that

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top soil which is a little heavier
and the compost which is a little lighter.

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It's going to keep it all light. It's going to keep it from

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packing together, and that's what you
want in a good potting soil. And

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one thing to mention too about pelight. It also has a neutral pH level.

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Oh it's it's huge because that's what
you know. It's not going to

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adjust anything, it's not going to
change things out, just like compost us.

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Finished composts is the same way your
soil can be a little bit different.

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That's going to be okay, But
those those other ingredients are really good.

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So now you've got that in,
it's a little loose, it's a

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little bit better. And what are
we going to kick in next? Oh,

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our favorite worm castings. It's right, two cups of worm castings.

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I cannot say it enough. Get
worm castings and have them on hand for

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everything. We put them on top
of our hanging baskets, we put them

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in every planning hole. We use
them to make a tea, to water

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our plants, to fertilize our plants. Yeah, I cannot tell you how

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many emails we get every single week
that says, oh, my gosh,

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I use worm castings last year for
the first time. I'm so amazed.

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I never get an email that says, ah, these this didn't work for

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me. They really do work,
and in potting soil they are a huge

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benefit. You have to be careful
too, when you're buying worm castings.

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You have to make sure that you're
buying one hundred percent worm castings. There's

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a lot of mixes out there that
the bags will say worm castings, but

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they have a lot of additives to
it or ground material though, So you

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really want to be careful what you
purchase. Yeah, and you can usually

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find them local. We have them. In fact, if you go to

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any of our sites, Old World
Garden Farms, Good, this is my

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garden. Or you go to Simple
Garden Light, we have a product's page

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on there. Click on it.
We have links there that you can buy

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them online, or you can at
least see what it is and go to

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your local store. But Mary,
you said it best one hundred percent worm

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castings, you've got to have that. If you get the fillers, they're

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not going to have the same power. I think the biggest thing about the

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wormcastings adding to your potting soil is
that it's a slow release fertilizer that your

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plants are going to benefit from months
well one hundred percent. And it also

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helps absorb water and keep it into
plants, which is going to help you

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water less when you're talking about potted
plants. And it lightens the soil as

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well. So it's that triple hitter, you know, it's it's just it's

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it's the crown excuse me of really
what you need to put in that soil.

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So when people ask us, I
know, when we did the interview

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with watching puts they ask us like, what's taking the place of Pete moss.

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I said, well, compost is
the big key because it's really lighten

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it up. But you get those
worm castings in there, and it really

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adds power that pete moss doesn't have
that power. Pete moss is just a

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lightner and it doesn't have the kind
of stuff so it holds some moisture in.

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But this is where you're getting the
great potting soil. When you start

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mixing that compost with the worm castings, and when you when you go to

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purchase worm castings, you know you're
going to get something that looks like little

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tiny pellets. Yeah, so you
know, just be aware that you know

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that's what you're looking for exactly exactly. So now we have four of the

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five ingredients. We put six cups
of top or of pulverized soil, and

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we put six cups of composts.
We put two cups of pearl light in,

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and we put two cups of worm
castings. And that leaves the last

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part of it, which people always
ask us, like, why are you

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doing this? It's it's the spent
coffee grounds rights the coffee grounds that you

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are finished with in the morning and
you're about ready to either put in your

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composts or unfortunately throw away, but
use those as part of you're potting soil.

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Yeah, you know, we say
this every time we talk about coffee

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grounds. You can't use fresh.
We get some non coffee drinkers it's like,

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why don't drink coffee? And I'm
like, you've got to have somebody

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saving for you because fresh coffee is
very acidic, and when it goes through

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that filtering process the water of making
coffee, it loses that acidity and becomes

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very good. If you use fresh, you're gonna you're gonna mess up that

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pH of the soil. So spend
coffee grounds and again two cups and you

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mix that all in. So what
do the coffee grounds do. Well,

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Again, they're going to help hold
some moisture in. They're gonna give some

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trace nutrients in there, which is
fabulous. I mean you're getting you know,

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nitrogen, you're getting all the other
trace elements, and again in an

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easily absorbed way, and they're going
to get to those plants. So it's

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huge to use all of those things. Can you leave one out? Yeah?

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You can not. Really the compost
because it's such a major part.

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But you put those five together and
I'm telling you you will have the best

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potting soil you've ever had. Right, And I know this isn't the question

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00:18:00,240 --> 00:18:02,440
the week, and I'm kind of
jumping the gun here, but we get

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this question a lot, and I'm
just going to throw it out there right

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now. Can you use spent coffee
grounds that have been flavored like hazel nut

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or all the different flavors? Great, great point, because I've probably answered

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a hundred questions. I'm glad you
brought that up. All right, So

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here's our take on it. There's
a lot of natural flavors that are used,

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and if you look on it,
it's one naturally flavored. There's no

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00:18:25,480 --> 00:18:27,960
problem. In my mind, there's
no problem with it. You get into,

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you know, like cake ups and
all the other things where it's all

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kinds of art. I just my
feeling is if I'm growing something, I

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want to know what's in it,
and I don't know what's in that,

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and I don't know what kind of
chemical they use to make that flavor.

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So I always say, no,
don't you. So we'll stay away from

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the artificial flavored coffees. But natural
flavored coffees are good to go. Yeah,

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I just think you're safe that way. And we talk about it all

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the time, and we have our
standard coffee, so we don't really know.

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Boring, nothing to worry about.
That's right, Well I'm boring or

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else. At least it gets us
off to a good start boring. I'm

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probably not very boring if I don't
get that cup. So so anyway,

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mix these together. People ask how
long does it last? It's it's indefinite.

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I mean, you got you got
that in there. As long as

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it's not wet and leaching out.
You can use that soil if you make

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too much extra. But fantastic for
potted plants. It really is fun to

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kind of make your own potting soil
and realize that you're controlling. I always

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said, like when we grow our
own pants from seed, and then we

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plan our own flower pots and we
plant our own garden, and at the

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end of the year you're putting what
you made into your own compost pile.

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It is an unbelievable failing. You
know you did it all right, and

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you know it's just a great excuse
to play in the dirt again. It

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is it is It is so okay, So let's kind of wrap this up

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and talk about you know what we
said, so again, Pete Moss,

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you just don't need it to make
a really quality potting soil. And to

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do that this recipe that we have
today, which is five ingredients again you

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know, pulverized soil, compost,
you're talking about, coffee grounds, spent

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the spent variety, perlite, and
worm castings, those five together in that

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00:20:00,160 --> 00:20:03,440
mix. And again go to Simple
Garden Life. This will be the article

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00:20:03,440 --> 00:20:04,960
of the week. And if it's
not up there, all you gotta do

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00:20:06,359 --> 00:20:11,160
is just put in the search bar
right there best potting soil or potting soil,

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00:20:11,200 --> 00:20:14,359
it's going to come up. And
again on all of our sites.

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00:20:14,400 --> 00:20:17,799
I always want to tell that people
there's a search bar on every site and

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00:20:17,839 --> 00:20:21,720
it's a really good search bar.
Put in any topic in there and you're

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00:20:21,720 --> 00:20:23,599
going to find our articles on it, and it's really helpful. Absolutely,

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00:20:23,640 --> 00:20:26,400
it's a great way to find the
information that even if it's something we haven't

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00:20:26,440 --> 00:20:30,400
yet covered, you can definitely search
those websites and get what you need.

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That's right. So I think that
about does it get out there make your

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00:20:33,880 --> 00:20:37,680
own potting soil try it, just
you know what, do what we used

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to do and have a little fun
with it. We would plant some commercial

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potting soil and we would do ours, and we would try a couple of

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mixes and we try ours. We
always came back to, wow, this

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is I think the final tweak for
us was adding a little more worm castings

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that really put more energy in it. But have fun with it, have

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fun with guardening. That's what it's
all about, right Mary, Absolutely,

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I think it's time. It's time. Well, happy spring everyone, and

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00:20:56,400 --> 00:21:00,799
remember whatever you do, find the
fun and gardening and grow something beautiful.

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00:21:00,079 --> 00:21:04,319
So long everyone. We hope you've
enjoyed this episode. Subscribe to the Simple

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00:21:04,359 --> 00:21:08,720
Garden podcast on iTunes, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or most of your favorite

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00:21:08,720 --> 00:21:12,599
podcast apps. You can also head
over to simplegardenlife dot com where you can

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00:21:12,640 --> 00:21:17,039
listen and read all of the show
notes to every episode. And if you

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00:21:17,079 --> 00:21:19,559
have any questions, any ideas for
show topics, or if you want to

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00:21:19,559 --> 00:21:25,759
share your favorite garden tip, email
us at the farm at owgarden dot com.

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Until next time, Thanks everyone,