So do you get confused when at the nursery between all the types of soils? There are a ton of soils for different plant types but I wanted to talk today about The three main ones: Potting, planting and topsoil.

Top soil is the cheapest and honestly the worst.  This one is full of clay and silt, with some other add-ins like sand and bark.  This is garbage dirt for the garden.  The only use case for top soil is when dealing with aquatic plants. There it is a star but for all other use cases, just pass.

Planting soil is fine and usually priced well. Not amazing, not bad. It's predominantly made up of shredded bark. This is a good thing because it adds a lot of organic matter when you're planting.  Less good because it hasn't broken down yet so it holds little water.  I use this when planting things that can handle a little dryer or when I’m motivated and willing to mix it well with my clay.

Potting soil is the absolute best and the price certainly reflects that.  And regardless of the name, using potting soil in the ground is fantastic.  Potting soil is made of the shredded bark but has added to it peat moss, perlite, beneficial fungi, and usually a long release fertilizer.  My favorite brand is the yellow Miracle grow and because of all the additives I just mentioned, it is also fantastic for seed starting.  You especially want to use this when planting thirsty crops and and as the name says, when planting things in pots. I also discovered that potting soil is puppy bait! I left Nacho out here with the soil for one minute and came back to him hoovering it down as fast as he could! Puppy owners beware!

There are a lot more specialty soils they sell at nurseries and while some are good like Cactus soil for cacti, others are just silly like Citrus tree soil  or raised bed soil. Hopefully this will help you when shopping for soils!!!

Miracle grow Potting Soil (paid link) https://amzn.to/44MRYCL