I learned this mixing method from another poster here last year and I love it!

I take two plastic grocery sacks and double bag them. I shovel/trowel the bag, so it is about 1/2 to 2/3 full of soil. I bring the bagged soil into the kitchen and put it in the sink. I run warm water--full blast-- over the soil for 10-15 seconds. I tie the tops of the bags closed. I roll the bag around in the sink for about 30 seconds. I leave the bag anywhere from 30 minutes to two hours, and the soil is mixed, plumped up, and moist. If it is too wet, I add a couple more trowels-full of potting mix and let it sit a little while. Very rarely is it too dry. Good idea, trowelgal!

cheers,
Nora Belle

The watering is the part I was having trouble with. I will definitely try this method - hopefully tomorrow in front of the fireplace on a large, old sheet.
laurie

Amazing! Thanks for sharing the ideas! :)

same here on larger scale:

Giant Rolling Tote
Kiddie metal spade shovel
5G pail of water

Super easy, and easy to store & move if you have the room/need this much.

I do dump my soil into a large rubbermaid container and if it isn't to my liking (texture wise) then I might mix in something like perlite, etc. After mixing it well, I fill my containers with the dry mix and then set them into a larger container filled with water, like a pail or container that deli potato or mac salad comes in....maybe even a 2 lb. marg. container, full of water. I let them sit until they are soaked....I can tell as the water level in my container is at soil level. This only usually takes a few minutes. I then lift them from the water and after holding them over the water to drain for just a few seconds, I sit them in another container to drain for about 15 min. or so. They are good and moist and ready to plant! Of course I usually only do a few containers (maybe about ten or so) at a time.
Not sure why I started doing it this way as I read that a lot do use the method of pre-moistening the soil in a large container before filling containers.
gg

Scoop out the soil from the bag, put the container in the kitchen sink, water, throw in some seeds, slap on a piece of tape and a label and heave ho out back. See ya in March!

Wetting the soil took some experimentation for me to figure out.

First I put it in the containers dry, then tried to wet it from the top. No go, water just sat on top due to surface tension. Fail.

Then I tried bottom soaking. No go, similar issue. The water just wouldn't soak into the soil. Fail 2.

THEN I put the soil in a 5 gal bucket filled about half-way and blasted the garden hose into it (did this outside). Used a small shovel and mixed it together. Ah, MUCH better. With soil thoroughly wet I put it in the containers and let it drain. But still too slow. Not so bad.

NOW the soil is put in the 5 gal bucket about half to 2/3 full. Water is blasted into it with a garden hose. Then I mount up a motar / paint mixing paddle into my 1/2" plug-in DeWalt power drill and attach a foregrip for getter control. Power on, pull the trigger and go to town. 850 rpm of mixing power. Takes about 15 seconds to mix up 2.5 - 3 gal of soil. Awesomeness.

Once the drill/mixer paddle is set up it takes a VERY short time to dump in more soil, add water, and then 15 seconds or so of mixing.

These aren't my photos but they give you a good idea:

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