I once tried to reuse the potting mix but none of the plants really did well that year. I didn't bother taking 1 photo all summer in fact. The soil is completely filled with roots, to the point that I have to saw through it to break off chunks of soil to be able to pick them up and toss them in fall.

I've got 40 containers each summer of annuals. I've been using Miracle-Gro regular mix and their Moisture Control in the past, and both are pretty good, I really have no complaints about either. I get the 2 cu ft size bags, and I always wait for a good sale though, but with Covid, it seems even the good sales aren't that great anymore. The 2 cu ft bags are $13.99-$17.99 for their regular mix and $16.99-$18.99 for the Moisture Control. Past sales I've gotten their regular mix for $8.47 each, and I need about a dozen bags. Plus our sales tax is over 10%, so it really adds up.

I've looked into buying separate ingredients and mixing my own, but the prices turn out much higher in my area, mostly because of those separate ingredients being sold in smaller packages, plus I don't really have the room to be mixing my own without making a huge mess.

This year I'm pretty decided on trying Pro-Mix Premium All Purpose Mix, the value size of 2 cu ft is $14.98 most everywhere here (the size that expands to 4 cu ft, or at least 3.5 cu ft from reviews I've read). And mix in some earthworm castings with my usual slow-release fertilizers. That's not a sale price, I can hope for a sale once everyone gets them in stock, but that's not a bad price considering it expands to near double the size.

So I've been wondering what everyone else uses, and is there a cheaper way? For me that's over $100 I could spend on more flowers!

For big, always-outside pots, I just use ground dirt from a part of the garden where there is plenty of humus in the soil and it is much darker, never from the mowed area. Just make sure to engineer the drain hole so it can't become blocked. A curved piece of broken clay pot has always been my preferred way of doing that. Mix in some compost if you have it. This ensures that pots are heavy enough to stay in place during storms, and I don't have any budget for buying bags for that kind of purpose.

You must have outstanding rich topsoil at your home Tiffany, I am envious. The home I grew up in had soil like that but I have never been that fortunate since I married and moved away 59 years ago and I have lived in 6 states!

I have not had good luck with Miracle Gro and I NEVER use anything with moisture control preferring to control the moisture and nutrition myself. We get pretty torrential rains here and moisture crystals tend to keep the soil too wet. I used to use ProMix but find their quality has gone down in recent years. Now I am using Happy Frog, Ocean Forest (but this one needs lots of additional perlite) or Black Gold potting mediums. Yes, they are pricey but my plants are also and I have confidence in these mixes. I buy whichever is on sale.

Tiffany, if you are using garden soil I understand our differences in watering practices now.

I don't have any place where I can dig up soil at all, let alone good rich soil. I'm on a typical big city suburban lot. While it's not tiny, anything not used for plants and trees is grass and no place to remove some without it being an eyesore. Plus whenever I've dug to plant anything, there's this green nylon mesh everywhere under the soil and grass, double layered. I run into it between 2"-6" deep at the most, front and back. It must have been the thing to do back in the 50s when this area was developed. It's also filled with rocks, I think at one time they used a larger stone as mulch under bushes and around a tree and along a fence. So every time I dig, I'm cursing because of running into rocks, raking leaves I'm constantly picking up rocks, and I have to be careful when mowing. They're constantly working their way up.

I checked the other brands recommended, and I think I'd have to give up container gardening if that was my only choice... it would cost more than 3x as much as I'm currently spending on potting soil, so that's just not possible. I'd do it if I could use the same soil year after year, but after a full season the containers are completely root-filled by fall. I can't even shake soil from the roots... I have to cut them into smaller pieces just to be able to pick them up to throw them away.

I've had decent luck with Miracle-Gro's moisture control. When you have to water daily anyway, it really doesn't do anything though. I'll get whichever is cheaper, the regular or the moisture control. Containers have drainage, so if it rains heavy enough, it just means I can skip a day of watering.

So far I'm still thinking the Pro-Mix is going to be my best bet, decent quality within my price. My local Ace had Miracle-Gro regular on sale for $10.99, that wasn't bad (was only $8.49 last year), but I couldn't get it from any Ace near me for some reason. The only reason I haven't ordered the Pro-Mix yet is because only Menard's has it in stock right now. And I really dislike that they add a fee onto online orders, and have to deal with their mail-in rebates. I'm hoping Lowe's will get stock soon.

Good soil doesn't just happen, you have to work at it, adding organic matter often, for years. I've done it in solid OH clay that wouldn't drain at all, and here in the concrete of AL soil, which is even more difficult, being clay + sand.

Whatever it is that is the starting point, it just needs lots of organic matter. Where I am gardening now, people used to park their cars as recently as 2014. So hard, I couldn't dig in it at all for the first couple years. Add whatever organic matter you can find, whenever you find it, and it's like magic!!

Starting a cultivated area by smothering is the best way to jump-start. Anybody can "make great garden soil."

Just like Mother Nature has done forever. Nothing better than the soil on the forest floor.

I've got an 8' space behind the garage that I've sometimes thought of using to dump old potting mix, and to mix in compost. But during the summer it gets overrun with grape vine, not to mention the host of seeds, and a huge pokeberry I let grow for the birds, that I'd have to be back there weeding and cleaning up vines daily, and even then I'm sure I'd be putting more weed seeds into my containers than annuals. So I gave up on that idea. If I do use it just to dump old potting mix and not taking anything back out, eventually that would build up over time, so not sure that's even wise to do.

Exactly! If one wants good plants, they're going to need good dirt. There's nothing one could buy that could equal the results of using all of the (FREE!) organic matter generated by the home and property.

I was composting already for decades but Dr. Elaine explains so interestingly and compellingly what is going on, in non-jargon language. Some of it is about farming, but we should all be concerned about that too, with society aiming more at gardening for food than the current style of agriculture that uses so much synthetic fertilizer.

My all-time fav vid of Dr. Elaine:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?...

Murky, if unwanted things sprout, pull them before they get too big to handle, and compost them too. Shouldn't be hard in containers. If that happens in the ground, you can smother it for a year and start over - with even "better dirt".

I must be spoiled with fresh potting mix each year... I don't think I've ever pulled a weed out of any of my 40 containers ever.

If I can keep a big enough spot cleared behind the garage, I'll try it for next season in at least a few of the planters. I don't want to be stuck with 40 duds like that one year I tried to re-use the potting mix ... 2 I can just replant if need be.

The biggest problem is going to be keeping the grape vine out. There's new neighbors on the side it comes from, and I think they're going to try to rip it all out. Maybe I should work on killing off the grape vine like the invasive trumpet honeysuckle that I fight yearly. My body sure would love not having to try and cut it out and dump each fall.

Weeds in the ground get away from me sometimes because ground plants can survive being ignored for weeks at a time, but pots need water more often so I would notice within a week if something sprouted in one. I get a lot of pecan sprouts from squirrels hiding nuts in pots, but not much else. I wish all of my "flower beds" were raised, like giant pots. Each gardener has their own personalized situation, preferences, and experiences.

I can't even imagine not having weeds in my containers. They are always here, I have to yank them all the time. Most of the seeds are airborne but I even find my worst nemesis, Chamberbitter, I swear it comes in the potting mix because its seeds are too heavy to be airborne.

I guess if nothing else, you can say that Miracle-Gro potting mixes are definitely weed-free. I plant usually by mid-May, and the planters really look bare, they're from my seeds I started indoors and small purchased plants. But within a month, they are so full no seed can get in to grow after that. But nothing seems to settle in between that time when they could find bare soil. I hope we didn't jinx me after these posts, and I'm not going to be weeding the planters daily!

It sounds like you are growing annuals. I grow mostly tropicals and perennials, I suspect I get more weed because my plants are all several years old, it stands to reason there would be more weed over time.

Yes, it's annuals only that I plant in containers, so that explains my lack of weeds more.

I filled a big pot over the weekend with ground dirt. It needs to be ridiculously heavy because I put 4 Brugmansias in there. 3 of them are over 3 feet tall, from where I cut them last fall, and the other one is much shorter but already has tons of new branches starting. There will be a lot of foliage. I don't want to come home after a storm and find that pot sideways. Doesn't seem to be draining very well but Brugs make tons of roots & are always so thirsty, I have high hopes for that pot. If it doesn't work out, the only cost was a little effort in cutting the branches to save inside over winter & a little digging. My plant budget has pretty much already been spent @ the grocery store this year.

I think I'll be doing a lot of compost tea, instead of buying fertilizer. That always makes pulling weeds seem more important too, if they're going into the tea.

The big ceramic pots never have enough or large enough holes. Sometimes you have to drill a few extra holes yourself. I also like to drill a hole or two on the side down near the bottom.

I've only been using cheap plastic containers. The first year I didn't want to invest too much in case they did poorly, so just got $15 plastic planters, 20" diameter. Then I decided I wanted more and wanted all the planters to match so just stuck with it. Once the flowers get going after a month, you no longer see the containers at all. And in trying to move them, I'm glad because I can barely get them in place by tilt/swivel/repeat until it's sort of rolled into position. I can't imagine how heavy they'd be if I used ceramic containers (and how many times I'd break them).

I've been using the Ups-A-Daisy thingies inside those large planters to save on potting mix, and now I place 3-4 pavers or bricks in the bottom before I insert the Ups-A-Daisy, then the potting mix, and that keeps most of them from tipping over. I've got one that I grow moonflowers and cardinal vines with a 5' tall trellis in it, that high winds will still topple over. But it's close enough to my garage that I attached a chain from the very top of the trellis to the garage, and that keeps it from tipping over. It just looks a bit tipsy until I straighten it back up after a high wind storm, but never falls down so the plants don't get crushed at all.

That sounds very sturdy!

It does sound like a good idea. I used to live in a very windy spot and often had to use bricks to weigh pots down. Here in FL it gets so hot that the plastic pots do not hold up. I do use them but it is pretty much for temporary use only. My preference is for clay, they hold up and are not as heavy as the ceramic. I am 79 and moving the ceramic is a chore so I only have a few of those big ones these days. DH and I use a Pot Lifter when it is necessary to move one. For a few years they sold pots that looked like ceramic but were made of something like Styrofoam. I loved them for their weight and because they were about 1/2" thick so they insulated the soil but they did not hold up and I have not seen any in years. For any heavy planters on hard surfaces like the patio or driveway I use plant dollies so I can turn or move the plants.

I still have a couple of those styro pots that (originally) looked like clay. The rims are all beat-up but those 2 are still in service. There are new ones out there that I've seen that look like ceramic. For the price, I don't think they'll age well enough to be worth the $ like those older versions have been.

Forgot to say above, rocks are so rare here, I wouldn't hide one in a pot. All of the rocks I have here were picked up elsewhere and brought home. If I'd known this before moving down here, I would have brought a LOT more rocks from OH. I had a great collection of rocks there from going to new housing developments where they had just dug the basements. Rocks everywhere! I've never dug up a rock here that was bigger than a peanut.