I dump everything, filter and all.. it adds to the compost.... even old newspapers shredded a bit, egg shells, apple scraps, everything except meat , or bones.. it's amazing how fasr ir all turns to rich soil, I keep an old shovel in the garden, and cover the last 'dump' with a board to keep the coons and possums from digging it up... space it all over the garden and that way all the plants can tap into it... I use an old plastic Folgers coffee-can so it doesn't rust in the sink, it has a lid, and is unobtrusive, takes me abt. 3 days to fill it and then out it goes, give it a rinse and put it back in it's corner in the sink.... works for me.... sally

Many people have written posts about using wood products in organic gardening. This is a brief summary of what we have learned about the power of wood products in the soil: Fresh wood products like sawdust or pine needles or bark are great organic mulches. They keep down most weeds, regulate soil temperatures, attract many benneficial soil organisms, and are usually free or very cheap to get. However, there is some concern about the high acidity of products like pine needles and sawdust. Also some wood products made from black walnut trees can be allelopathic, due to the release of toxin products like juglone in the soil. There is also the concern of temporary nitrogen deficiencies in the soil near growing plant roots, because wood products are usually high carbon materials. If your wood products are well aged, over 6-12 months old, in most cases, any of the above issues are meaningless. Of course there are a few exceptions with some controversial wood products like black walnut tree products. The same is true if your compost any wood products with other "browns" and "greens", through a hot process, where internal temperatures exceed 140 degrees F, for several days, with constant aeration and moisturizing through the composting process. The resulting mature compost will have a near neutral pH, with all the mild toxins neutralized and balanced with other available soluble nutrients, so that your plants can grow safely and healthy in the soil. Good, active, highly aerobic, hot composting usually heals and breaks downs all issues that most gardeners have with controversal organic materials. If you keep enough mature compost or high nitrogen organic matter mixed in your soil underneath, even with using fresh acidic woody mulches, there will be no visible signs of nitrogen deficiencies, or soil pH issues, to your growing plants using these types of mulches. Nitrogen deficiencies are caused by high carbon materials in the soil, reacting with soil microbes, fighting to maintain the near 30:1 carbon-nitrogen ratio that they need to survive and grow as they benefit our soils, and for organic matter decomposition. All organic matter made from trees is rich in total calcium and potassium. Even wood ashes, can contain up to 70% calcium carbonate or calcium oxide (liming agents), and is rich in available potassium. NOTE: Never use wood ashes directly in your soil, if you haven't recently checked your native soil pH! Don't use wood ashes in your compost pile too much (Only use it if you have an abundance of ashes that you need to get rid of, or use in your gardening schemes). Wood ashes will chemically react with high nitrogen materials like fresh animal manures, and waste off a lot of your valuable nitrogen in the pile off as ammonia gas. Also any liming agent is not necessary in an active compost pile anyway. Compost will naturally go up and down in pH from very acidic, to very alkaline, to a resulting near neutral pH, as aerobic microbes break down and digest organic matter in the pile over time. Composted or well aged sawdust is also a powerful soil conditioner. It is better and cheaper than gypsum for aerating and loosening up native heavy clay soils. The extra calcium and potassium benefits are great assets also. Earthworms and soil microbes love it! In conclusion, using wood products as mulches or composting ingredients, is some of the best stuff in the world to use for soil building. Like everything else, use them wisely. Happy Gardening!

I'd be less worried about pH and more concerned about the "fluff" that these companies include in the bag as a "conditioner". Forest products are in the forest for a reason and don't belong in a garden, yard, or in a planter. My answer is simple, pH will not be your problem. My question will most likely be more complex: what do the small bark nuggets and pine needle fines provide your pots that is useful? If you are interested in testing the soil, conditioner or the combined result, then let me know. I use an incredible lab based in the midwest that can help you find out for sure if your pH is an issue but its not going to be. Refocus on what nutrients your plants are being provided or not provided from soil microbes and the organic matter. Also, focus on creating an ideal texture for proper drainage and the health of your organic matter digesting microbes. The pH discussion is overdone all over the world to this day because a researcher found that sulphur helped high pH soils and calcium helped low pH soils. In reality, the improvement came from the increased availability and texture benefits of the calcium. Also, those soluble fertilizers are only providing your plant with N and burning up any beneficial compost and the corresponding microbes.

Sand is not the thing to add - sorry, because I know you would have worked very hard in doing that. Sand involves the most work but the smallest reward. Leaves from deciduous trees would be a great thing for your soil. It's a question of what you have close to hand. Where I am, I am surrounded by suburbs of deciduous trees and I spend a lot of time collecting them and building piles wherever I deem a good place for a pile to be, which seems to be an ever-increasing number of sites. Improving a soil takes time, but if done over time and using the right sort of things, you will one day have lovely soil. For your bulb garden, a raised bed will provide drainage. It's hard to explain how this is so, but rest assured that the reason for raised beds is because of the drainage they provide. Can you describe what you are starting with? For example, is there any sort of garden, grass, weeds, concrete. A new place or an existing garden of some kind? We are operating in the dark here a little, I think. And what sort of stuff is available for you to get?