100% Sustainable Premium Organic Potting Soil

Not too long ago, peat was the gold standard for amending soil. Gardeners everywhere would mix bales of peat moss into their vegetable and flower beds to improve the soil’s ability to hold water, nutrients, and oxygen. Peat was also the main ingredient in practically every commercial growing medium.

Since it’s a plant-based product, most folks consider peat to be a good and natural product to add to the soil, similar to adding manure or compost. However, that’s not the case. Why? Because peat is not a sustainable resource.

Peat comes from wetland sphagnum moss that decomposes very slowly in oxygen-poor water. And, it retains water like a sponge. The problem is that peat forms at less than one millimeter per year which means that the peat used in gardens today literally took thousands of years to form. And, because peat retains 1/3 of the world’s soil carbon, draining a peat bog and mining the peat releases CO2 into the atmosphere. Note that we use the term “mining” and not “harvesting” because peat is not a renewable crop. Yes, peat is an excellent growing medium, but at what cost?

Magic Dirt is 100% sustainable. It’s formulated with anaerobically digested organic fiber and composted forest products; however, it is not compost, and it contains no peat moss, coir, perlite or vermiculite. Our products are certified under the USDA’s BioPreferred Program as 100% BioBased (all organic ingredients).

For each cubic yard of Magic Dirt used in place of peat moss, the release of about one ton of greenhouse gas is avoided (by bogs not being mined), helping protect our environment. Even the bag is recyclable!