Beginner Gardening: First time gardener when/how should I start?, 0 by NancyGroutsis

NancyGroutsis wrote:
rooftopgardener, Hi! I recommend a bark dust and perlite soil which is much lighter than regular potting soil. Novosel has inexpensive paper pots that are light and seem hard as wood.

http://www.novoselenterprises.com/products/biodegradable-pot...

The ones I have from a year ago are as solid as when I bought them even though some have been outdoors. They're also very inexpensive which allows you to experiment at little cost. A large 4 1/2 gallon pot filled with half and half perlite and bark dust (mulch) seems to weigh less than a pound and can easily be moved which makes it easy to mix and match plants while you're finding out what the best sun location is for each species.

However, you probably should add nutrients to the water and/or fertilizer to the top of the soil because bark dust and perlite don't have a lot of nutrients. Also, you would need to remove the sand from the perlite. One way to do that is to place a gauze cloth in a pot with holes, put the perlite in the gauze and pour water over the perlite for a minute. I've used a pine bark and perlite media for many different species of plants and almost all thrive in it (i.e. my tomato plant grew 2 ft. in 2 months and my Lamium in the attached photo grew 4 times bigger and bloomed in 2 months), but I add humic acid, Miracle-Gro, vinegar and hydrogen peroxide at different times plus organic fertilizer usually during the potting phase. - DoGooder