10 Gardening Items I Run Out of the Most

Just like well-worn tools indicate favorites, items that you keep running out of are most likely the ones you favor in day-to-day gardening. These are things I’m constantly seeking to reload:

Black gold to a gardener.

1.) Compost. My homemade supply always runs out long before my uses for it.

2.) Potting mix. Somehow my pots are reproducing like rabbits and sucking up more and more bags of this stuff every spring. Plus I use it for growing out seedlings under my plant lights.

3.) Vermiculite. Tops on my Christmas list every year. The best medium for starting seeds.

4.) Time. Like most gardeners, I can never get into the garden as often as I’d like or get everything done when I’d like.

How much mulch can a mulcher mulch if a mulcher can no longer mulch much?

5.) Mulch. I go through 8 or 10 cubic yards of bark mulch every spring topping off my beds. I tried going every other year, but weeds got noticeably worse in the off years.

6.) Flower fertilizer. One of the few chemical products I use, this is the crystally stuff that gets mixed with water and applied mainly to annuals during the growing season. I use it almost strictly for potted plants, adding half-strength every couple of weeks (or whenever I have time to do it).

7.) Aluminum sulfate. This is the stuff that makes hydrangeas bloom blue by driving down the pH and adding aluminum. My soil’s on the alkaline side, so it’s taking some effort.

8.) Trowels. I don’t know why I keep buying cheapo ones and breaking them. Guess I give them a good workout.

Lots of trowels and tribulations in my gardening...

9.) Hand pruners. Good thing I haven’t bought any expensive pairs of these because I keep losing them somewhere in the beds.

10.) Energy. In shortest supply of all these days. I used to be able to garden sun up till sun down and be ready for more. Now, five or six hours at a time is enough.