Can you reuse soil in container gardens?

While many gardeners remove the soil from garden containers during the summer – especially in colder climates where soaked soil could freeze and break the soil, if you don’t, you have probably wondered if you can reuse the soil.

You can reuse the soil, but you should introduce more nutrients back into the soil – what some people do is mix half new nutrient rich soil with what is still in the container.

It is also recommended that you rotate crops in those containers when you are reusing the soil.  This will help prevent plant diseases from soil reuse.  It is recommended that you don’t plant another plant form the same family in the same soil for three years after the growing season.  However, if you use no soil and clean the container well, you can plant the same vegetable family in the same container.

There is also special blend soil designed for container gardens, but you can make your own.  Fine Gardening has a great article on soil for container gardening.