I live in Aurora near Denver. Where's the best place to get organic garden soil? Lowes was a bust. Home Depot quoted me a price of $200 to get 30 cubic feet of soil plus a couple bags of compost plus shipping. And the woman was rather snotty to me on the phone. Especially considering that mine was a very large order.

Anyone got any ideas on where to get some quality organic garden soil?

BTW, I don't have a truck, or a boyfriend with a truck, or anything like that. So it would have to be delivered.

Appreciate any ideas.

WalMart has several different bagged soils, and from what I saw, they’re all under $2 a bag. I’ve been buying a bagged cow compost, and while you wouldn’t want to use that as a basic planting soil, (I’ve been mixing it in my natural soil to improve it), it’s only 98 cents a bag. I’d go there and check out the other bagged soils they have. You’re just going to be planting veggies in it—you don’t need anything fancy. Most of us plant our veggies in the good old native clay, and, for the most part, they do fine. Since you can’t tell for sure what the soil in the bag is like till you get it home and open it, I recommend buying one bag of the 2 or 3 kinds you think will be the best and take them home and open them to decide which one you want more of.

Last time I got some, I got 10 bags, and could easily have gotten more in my trunk, and hadn’t used the back seat at all, so you could possibly get all 30 bags at once, or, worse case scenario, you’d need to make 2 trips. (I put an old blanket in the trunk and/or back seat when I’m hauling stuff like that.) And you should be able to easily move individual bags yourself—I’m 5'3" and 110 lbs—and I’m 63 years old! (somebody at WM will load it for you)

If you want to add anything to the bagged soil, I recommend just using Canadian peat. You can get the large bale probably still for under $15 (might need to go to HD or Lowes for that—not sure if WM carries it), and then mix in about 20% peat after you dump out the bags.

If you want to get it bulk, Pioneer has locations all over Denver and has all kinds of landscaping supplies, including soils—but I think they’re pretty expensive for their stepping stone type stuff. Don’t know about soils. You’d need 3 yards, but then they’ll dump it in the drive or somewhere when they deliver it and you’ll need to move it yourself to your beds. (Anywhere you get bulk soil will do it that way.)

Timberline gardens is on the wrong side of town for you, but they list their prices online, so you can at least use if for a comparison. Paulinos is closer, but still not too close at I25 and 58th Avenue, but they don’t list their prices online, so you’d need to call or stop by for prices.

For what you want to do, I sure would check out the WalMart option first. Compared to clay, your veggies are going to think they died and went to heaven in any bagged soil you use.

Hope some of this helps,
Skybird

Pioneer Sand: http://www.pioneersand.com/locations.htm

Also, skybird invited me to go to the plant swap. I know you are working so this is a tough call on the Friday scheduled. But I have tons of lilacs which come up around the yard. I posted asking how to replant these on another thread. Would be willing to share some with you.

B

soo disappointing...
i got a yard and a half of "planters mix" which Pioneer employees told was their best, and ready for my vegetable garden. I had high hopes, was glad to not have 25 or 30 empty plastic bags, so i borrowed a truck and drove quite far to get "soil" - soo disappointing... i've found ground up wood with PAINT chips... clay, clay and more clay, with little rocks, and is that a piece of a shoe ?? too late now, but i wish i'd known. DO NOT GET SOIL FROM PIONEER, at least not if you want to feel good about eating the vegetables that grow out of it.

BTW, I got the soil at their Aurora (6th & Chambers) location. Perhaps some of the other locations are better.

Their planter's mix does contain a good amount of clay but I don't have a problem with that.

Dan