What about making a couple of empty-of-plants spaces next to the wall so you can dump a yard at a time (or at least a couple wheelbarrows worth) over from the edge of the driveway? You could even put up stakes & chicken wire for a temporary "bin" so your pile is more vertical than spreading.

Might be worth looking into the price of having mulch delivered & spread... although you probably wouldn't get the same company back again (at least not at the "going rate" for spread mulch) once they figured out how much effort your garden required!

I think there might be a space or two where the bin idea would work. I have some tarps that could aid this quite a bit.

Using a wheel barrow is a good idea. A wheelbarrow at a time is a lot more than a bag at a time. I remember spreading 9 yards of mulch once and as I recall it's about 15 wheelbarrows per yard. And it's what, about six or seven bags per wheelbarrow? So 30 yards would be something close to 30 x 15 x 7 = 325 bags.

Hiring someone to spread it keeps looking better and better. What keeps me from doing this is that I like to carefully weed before the mulch goes down. I guess good landscape people know how to do that. Just need to find some here.

Obviously I am at the other end of the spectrum in garden care. With that much mulch, I'd be inclined to dump it on top of the weeds - hoping they would suffocate.

PPal - Tried that, doesn't kill the weeds here. Have put down the weedblock (has to be the thick grey stuff as the grass just grows up through the black plastic stuff. I get my weedfabric at Costco.) and then the mulch at least 4-6" deep in order to kill the weeds. And I'm way too poor to hire someone. Besides, I need the exercise!

Yeah, I know. I had some Johnson grass grow all the way up through a whole bale of straw.

I've resorted to chemicals. I weed each bed just once a year, then I apply Dimension or Preen. This year, with growth starting so early, I'll either have to apply the Preen twice, or buy Snapshot, which is more expensive, but lasts a lot longer.
I will never ever again use weed fabric. I've had a lot of people pay me good money to remove fabric that they had installed by others. Our bermuda grass loves the weed fabric. It gets good and established under it where you don't see it, and then once it's strong enough, it breaks through and you basically have to dig out 3 feet of dirt to get all the roots out. The thorny roots weave through the fabric where, to take out the fabric, you have to dig out the roots that are holding it.
Dirt blows in (from Colorado, thank you) and covers the fabric and weeds take root on top of it. There's a whole page full of reasons I won't use that stuff....and a few on why I don't like using the chemicals either, but I tried going completely organic and ended up with surgery on my hands and knees. Doc said i could either give up gardening, or pay someone to weed, or pay for more surgeries or garden using weed killers. Preen is my friend.

Had to go to Walmart tonight for bread & milk. Walked by the fresh produce area & that's where they have the rose bouquets. Look what I found there for $15/dozen

Red Intuition.


DH really liked them. Told him that I ordered this rose from Palatine.

Toni you really ought to buy a dozen and try to root them!
Wow. Those are beautiful. I have 2 of that rose coming from Palatine also. It already seems like summer here with temps in the 80s so now it seems silly that I asked for mid April shipment, but most years that would have been right. I have plenty to plant already here, but I'm getting anxious for my Palatine shipment.
for whatever reason, a few roses from my Edmunds shipment that I planted 3 weeks ago still have not broken dormancy. kinda worried about that. We've had rain and then warmth, and that should do it. The canes are nice and green. Guess I'm impatient since we skipped from mild winter to summer without a spring.

Is that RED INTUITION? They look gorgeous! And I'm so glad I got one and the plant looks fantastic!