I’ve started mixing my own soils, since I’ve been on Houseplant & Plant TikTok; I’ve learned a LOT about soil and the different types of mixtures these plants need. I’m already almost out of Perlite… oops. It was the only drainage I had to start. Yesterday I bought some Lava Rocks, today I pick up my Orchid Bark mix. Now I’m just missing the Horticultural Charcoal and the Coco Chips (or is the Lava Rock enough? Hmm.). I already have them in my Amazon shopping cart. I just got to pay bills first before playing with my dirt. Sigh lol. Why must I be an adult, wishing to be a grown up was the lamest wish in existence LOL. At least, I can buy myself plants when I want to.
I use Miracle-Gro Performance Organics as my soil base. It has some perlite and a chunky-ish mixture of organic compounds. For a 28qt bag, it’s only 13$ at Lowes… which sure as heck beats the Amazon price by MILES! I think the same bag on Amazon was 23$? Nearly twice the price. Yikes!
I’ve been adding 1-2 cups per 3 cups of soil to create a fast draining mixture. I may be adding a little too much Perlite but, as it stands, I didn’t have enough chunky mixture to make it fast draining with less. So, with the purchase of Lava Rocks and Orchid Bark I should be able to use much less perlite to soil ratio with a chunkier mixture. Did I mention I bought some Vermiculite when I picked up my Orchid bark? Hehehe.
Chickens?
My husband and I spoke to our landlord, and she gave us the OK to get chickens. So guess what I’m doing? Hunting down the best price for a chicken coop for least 6 chickens. I ran onto Facebook marketplace and found this cute chicken coop. Granted, it’s almost 4k$ said and done… but the RTO (Rent-To-Own) price is affordable at 168$/mo. It looks like it will hold 7 hens, has a nice brood boxes, perches, and a small space before the chicken space to store materials and feed. I’m hoping when hubby goes back to work, we can see about getting one. 🙂