How mixing your own gardening soil is cheaper and more sustainable

Potting soil from the garden centre is expensive and often contains peat. You'll be doing the environment a favour if you mix your potting soil yourself. Photo: Karl-Josef Hildenbrand/dpa

Gardening is expensive, what with buying all the plants, pots and potting soil. You can wind up spending the equivalent of your holiday budget every season if you don't watch out.

There's one way to save on potting soil, at least, and it benefits the environment, too: Mix your own substrate.