Soil for Gardening Indoors When growing plants indoors in containers, soil from the garden should not be used if you expect good results. Garden soil usually contains weed seeds, disease organisms, and drains poorly. If you want to use soil from the garden, it must be mixed with other things. Here's a good recipe: 1 part soil 1 part peat 1 part course sand or perlite The peat and sand will help to provide the drainage. Even better for growing plants indoors are artificial soils or soilless mixes. They are called artificial because they contain no soil but are made up of peat, perlite, vermiculite, and nutrients. They have a lot of plusses over soil. They are clean, lightweight, provide for excellent drainage, and easy to get. Soilless mixtures are available under several trade names such as Jiffy mix, Redi-earth, Pro mix, and Sunshine mix. Because artificial mixes contain no soil, they don't do a good job of holding on to nutrients. So, you will need to fertilize plants regularly to keep them looking good. Learn how to make your own soil by composting!