Personally, I wouldn't use either of them. Bound to be some additional sources with better offerings around somewhere. Otherwise, I'd by the basics in bulk and make my own. The Container Gardening forum Anney linked you to offers many recipes for good container mixes. Dave

I thought I posted this on the gardenweb forum. Now it's houzz? Had to sign up for a new user name. Anyway soo - you can get the Naked Gardener Compost or Debco Premium Potting Mix from Masters (closing soon). Course Perlite is from The Perlite & Vermiculite Factory Myaree (much cheaper than anywhere else). Sand I got from a bulk landscape place (lawn mix) but you can get 10 or 20kg bags of builders sand at Bunnings. Zeochlor is in the pool section at Bunnings. Rock Dust I got from the manufacturer direct somewhere in Bibralake (called Natural PK) but I think but you can now get a similar product from Waldecks (in Myaree at least). Waldecks also sell bentonite clay. I still want to try the gritty mix but getting my hands on all the materials has proved very difficult when I tried last year. I found a Queensland company that makes course DE (for mopping up oil/chemicals) but they didn't have a distributor in Perth. Nobody I could find has pine bark in the right size - and even if they did I'd have to by a cement mixer and modify it with a fine wire to screen it. Honestly, if an agricultural company were to produce the gritty mix and sell it in bags I think they'd make bank - even considering how long it lasts.

I found a 4'x4'x2' wooden box on a pallet, lined it with plastic and then used a square point shovel to mix with. Sort of like mixing mortar without a mortar mixer. Hard work, but I had everything.

Bruce, I was just reading your post in this thread. You mention screening out the particles less than 1/8". BE CAREFUL!! Remember you NEED at least some fraction of those particles in the 1/16" - 1/8" range for the mix to bind (and for retention). My mix calls for 1/2 part of bark in that range to be included, but that can be altered to increase the retention - if desired. Also, I'm seeing quite a bit of large diameter particles in your mix...beware of the ping pong balls dude! Are you passing it through a 1/2" mesh? If your product is comprised of too high of a concentration of larger particles...you may have to add another intermediate level of screening...say 1/4" to ensure that your larger pieces comprise only a moderate fraction of the total mix. Notice the amount of chips that are equal to or larger than your quarter? Quite a few, right? Notice mine. There are only a few pieces that are even half the size of the quarter. The more particles that you have in your mix that are similar, the better. You want to avoid too many large particles and too many small particles...the goldilocks zone is what your looking for....juuuuuust right. PJ