Muscle up your potting mix

Whether you're starting seed, repotting house plants, or assembling big pots of flowers for summer, it helps to use potting soil that already contains nutrients. You can buy ready-made, fortified mixes (nutrient contents are listed on the label) or make your own with the following controlled-release organic recipe.

Start by pouring a gallon of potting mix onto a potting bench. Add 1 tablespoon each of blood meal for nitrogen, kelp for trace elements, and greensand for potassium; then add 2 tablespoons of bone meal for phosphorus. Mix it all together and you're ready to plant.