What is the difference between potting soil and compost?
Exactly where do I find compost in the UAE?
How do I keep soil costs down?
Right, so from what I understand, potting soil is the main growing medium but it is low in nutrients and cannot be used on its own to grow vegetables. It can be particularly low in minerals and humus. Compost is mainly well-rotten organic material with a mixture of green (food waste, plant remains) and brown (paper, dried leaves) matter. It helps improve your soil and introduces much needed nutrients to it. You can make it at home using compost bins. In the UAE, Bokashi does compost bins for around USD 76.
The garden workers I spoke to here had no idea what I was talking about when I said 'compost' and answered mainly by scratching their heads. They knew their soil and fertiliser and medicine but not compost. The lady at the garden centre assured me that the potting soil was compost. And since I didn't know anything anyway, I just gave up on compost and went down the route of using organic well-rotten farmyard manure from the UK (sounds appealing, doesn't it) but honestly, that's what made it all grow for me I believe.
But this year, I have not just found compost, I have found 100% vegetarian bio-organic compost from Shalimar Herbals. It was delivered today by two pathan lads who didn't understand why someone living in an apartment wanted 10 bags of the stuff. But they were nice and gave me a free bag of potting soil in addition to the 10 I already bought.
And that leads to the issue of cost. I am going to let you in on a secret- order directly from Shalimar Herbals (http://www.shalimarherbals.com/). They sell at wholesale prices and deliver for free. The same 50 ltr bag of potting soil costs at least 30-50% more in the supermarkets. Plus, the compost is not retailed anyway. You can only buy it directly from the company.
Happy gardening!
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