How to Make Potting Soil for Herbs? Tried Method + Pro Tips

Providing the best soil is the first tip for creating an indoor herb garden, but what is the best potting soil for herbs? How to make it? I’m a horticultural consultant who has a PhD in plant protection science. Join me in this post to share my knowledge and experiences about the best soil for indoor herb gardens and show you how to create your DIY potting soil. keep reading.

What Is the Best Soil for an Indoor Garden?

More than 10 years working as a horticultural consultant showed me that some people don’t know the difference between the four below terms:

• Soil
• Garden Soil
• Potting Soil
• Potting Mix

If you are familiar with these terms, you can jump to the next section, otherwise, let me give you an easy definition of them. knowing their difference is very important to find the best soil for your indoor herb garden.

What Is Soil?

Soil is a loose layer on the surface of land that consists of various mixtures of the three basic materials:

Sands: are particles between 0.074 and 4.75 millimeters in size. So, sandy soil (sand is the predominant particle) is light soil with high drainage and a low ability to retain moisture and nutrients. It is a little acidic too.

Silts: are particles between 0.002 to 0.05 millimeters in size. Silt soil (silt is the predominant particle) is also light soil with good drainage properties and a good ability to retain moisture, oxygen, and nutrients.

Clay: are particles between 2 microns (0.002 mm) and smaller. Clay soil (having more than 25% clay) is heavy soil with low drainage properties and a high ability to retain moisture and nutrients and a little oxygen.

Depending on the various portions of the above particles, there are different soil types, but not every soil is proper for planting.

What Is Garden Soil?

The term Gardening soil often refers to the topsoil that is proper for outdoor gardening. This soil must have the following characteristics:

1. Having enough space between soil particles for air circulation.
2. Being light enough to allow the plant roots to easily penetrate and grow.
3. Good drainage properties to flow water through the soil.
4. High ability to retain moisture and nutrients.

When the subject of gardening comes up in every conversation you will hear the name of loamy soil. It is one of the best soil types for agriculture with a combination of:

• Sand (40%)
• Silt (40%)
• Clay (20%).

I recommend gardeners improve the characteristics of loamy soil by adding organic materials and fertilizers dependent on their planting type.

Anyway, the big question that people often ask me remains without answer: “What is the best soil for an indoor herb garden? Can I use gardening soil as potting soil?” keep reading.

What Is Potting Soil?

Potting soil is an improved soil mixture which is made for potted plants, especially houseplants. It is different from garden soil in the following characteristics:

• It must be lighter than garden soil to keep the weight of planters down.
• The potting soil tends to dry out more quickly than the garden soil.
• Potting soil must be sterile, so, it is free of both pathogenic and beneficial microorganisms.
• Potting soil often cannot retain nutrients as well as garden soil.

Some of the above features are good and some of them are bad so you must improve them dependent on your potting plant.

What Is Potting Mix?

Potting mix is a soilless growing media that is specially made from materials such as pine bark, peat moss, and either perlite or vermiculite to increase characteristics such as drainage, moisture-retaining, or nutrient-holding.

Hence, to be successful in an indoor garden project, you must fill your container with proper potting soil or potting mix, not garden soil or any other soil types. But what is the best soil for an indoor herb garden? keep reading.

What Kind of Potting Soil for Herbs?

Now that you are familiar with the terms soil garden, potting soil, and potting mix, their difference, and their features, it is time to consider the properties of indoor potting soil for herbs. The best potting soil for herbs must have the following characteristics:

• The mixture of your potting soil must be Lightweight. It is important due to in most indoor herb garden ideas, the weight of the container must be down, especially for hanging indoor herb gardens.
• Most herbs like wet soil but not waterlogged. So, it is vital your potting soil for herbs while having good drainage (draining freely), can hold moisture in the root zone. As I told you before, soil inside planters tends to dry out more quickly than garden soils.
• You must add materials to your potting soil mixture to retain nutrients.
• You must provide sterile potting soil for an herb garden that is free of weed seeds too.

My DIY Potting Soil for Herbs

And now, let’s show you my tested potting soil for herbs. I tried the following soil mixture and found it well for creating an indoor herb garden:

1. To hold moisture: Coco Coir, Coco peat, or Peat moss ➡ 1 part
2. To Improve Drainage: Perlite or Vermiculite ➡ 1 part
3. To increase soil nutrients: Compost ➡ 1 part
4. To provide stability to the roots: Topsoil (Loamy soil or garden soil) ➡  1 part

After blending the above ingredients, I check my potting soil PH. I often adjust it between 6.5 and 8 by adding lime to acidic soil to raise PH and close it to neutral. For alkaline soils, I add sulfur to decrease PH and bring it near neutral.

Please note that providing the soil with high drainage features is vital especially when planting in pots without drainage holes. If you are interested in planting in cachepots, I recommend reading my other articles about “best watering practices for pots without holes” and “herbs that don’t need drainage holes“.

Conclusion

In this post, I tried to share my experiences and knowledge with you about making potting soil for herbs. I discussed the best soil for an indoor herb garden and compared garden soil with potting soil and mix.

You can share your experiences with my readers below this page and ask me your questions. I will answer as soon as possible.