A first-time gardener turned to Reddit for advice after making a rookie mistake when transplanting a few indoor starts into their yard’s garden bed.
“They’ve been dying off and I realized that I’ve mistakenly filled the beds with 100 percent compost when I meant to be using a soil compost mixture,” they explained on a recent thread on the r/gardening subreddit. “Is there any way I can salvage this?”
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The gardener noted that they transitioned the starts to the outdoor set-up, showing no signs of burning upon eight hours of direct sun exposure. Fellow gardeners theorized that the plants are struggling due to a lack of water caused by the compost.
“Compost has bad water retention and vermiculite will offset that,” one commenter suggested.
Homeowners are turning to home gardens for fresh produce and herbs. Growing your own food can decrease your carbon footprint by eliminating the shipping costs of produce you’d buy at the store.
Raised garden beds like the ones the Redditor is using are a particularly strong choice, as they can extend the gardening season and provide ample drainage to plants. Installing garden beds can be a costly expense, but some DIYers have found more cost-effective ways to make their gardening dreams come to life.
For rookie gardeners, incorporating native plants can also be an easy and effective choice for making the most of a home garden. Plants native to the area will not only be easy to maintain but also support pollinators.
In the case of this struggling gardener, other commenters offered advice on reviving their raised bed efforts without starting anew.
“You can top dress and dig in whatever amendments you need to get your soil texture where you want,” another commenter suggested. “I’d probably go with builder’s sand, maybe some coconut coir. It really depends on what ‘compost’ means in this case.”
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