Substrate for container gardening.

[MissMeshow]

This is my first year for planting veggies. I bought a bunch of Organic Choice garden soil even though I knew it wasn't right for containers. The Lowes guy assured me it could be amended so that it would work. Whatever. Anyways, should I return it and start from scratch? Or what should I put in it to make it work. I plan on growing tomatoes, herbs, and cukes.

[rainbowgardener]

You could get some potting soil and mix the two together... I'd do it about half and half. Or you can just get peat moss and perlite and mix a bunch in to lighten and loosen your soil up.

[Kisal]

What you bought, mixed half-and-half with a good potting soil, will probably work fine for tomatoes and cukes.

For the herbs, I suggest you start with the half-and-half mixture, and combine one part of that to about 1/4 part of perllite. You could even add a couple handfuls of coarse sand, if you have any available. Herbs prefer a leaner soil mix than tomatoes and cukes.