Garden soil in the bottom of container

Latimer

Hi all

I had planned to fill this container with a mix of topsoil, mpc and leaf mould but in order to save a few pennies, and because I'm digging out another part of the garden, can I put that garden soil into the bottom of the container. The soil is mostly from the surface and is quite weedy but if it's at the bottom, will that matter?

Thanks all

Edit: Forgot the pictures!

bcpathome

No it won’t matter but try get the weeds out first if you can. 

GardenerSuze

Cannot see the pot, just wondered what you would like to grow in it please.

JennyJ

I would, but my soil is sandy and free-draining (in fact I'd mix it with the compost). Not sure if I would if it were heavy sticky clay.

Dovefromabove

JennyJ said:

I would, but my soil is sandy and free-draining (in fact I'd mix it with the compost). Not sure if I would if it were heavy sticky clay.

I agree … it depends on the soil. 

Latimer

Thank you ask for the swift responses!

It is indeed a sticky clay! I wasn't planning on mixing it in, just chucking a few inches at the bottom to bulk it up a bit

Latimer

Not sure if a photo is much help!

JennyJ

It might be OK if your plants won't mind clay (sticky when wet, concrete-like if it dries out). Or for something shallow-rooted like small bedding plants that won't get down to the clay layer.

Latimer

@JennyJ it'll be a mix of shade loving plants, so ferns, heuchera, hostas and some bulbs

JennyJ

That doesn't look too bad - I was envisaging the kind of shiny sticky clay that you could make pots from.

If that was mine, I think I would put the soil in but not as a separate layer. I would crumble it up more and mix it with some of the leafmould and MPC to lighten it, then put topsoil/MPC/leafmould on top. You don't want the garden soil near the top because where there a weeds there are most likely seeds which will germinate if they're near the surface.

Latimer

@JennyJ thank you!!