I have always filled my big container pots with a couple of flakes of straw, compressed. Soil on top with compost. By the time they are ready to be dumped the straw has rotted nicely.
You know I LOVE my straw!
As I was planting my ‘Lieutenant’ Broccoli today, I was thinking: ‘I have GOT to post pictures of the soil in my raised beds!’
I owe it ALL to ‘Ithaca Grow’ and heavy mulching of straw. I don’t add any other components to the mix. It. Is. Magical!
(And Earthworms like you wouldn’t believe!)