In previous posts, I talked about mixing my potting soil. In general, plants you purchase from typical roadside and riverside nurseries in Cairo will be potted in the dark rich clay soil. Clay soil possesses some properties that make it a superior farming medium: it is highly fertile and is more resistant to erosion than sand and silt soils.
However, clay soil also also possesses other properties that make it less suitable or desirable as a container plant growing medium: it is considerably heavy, and will become too firm when dry (the timeless image of Egypt's unchanging farmer ever plowing the dark land comes to mind). In this post, I describe the basic ingredients to mixing potting soil and their function in the mixture.
