We also get shredded mulch by the dump truck load a few times a year. The tree trimmers that clear under utility lines bring it to the far edge of our property and dump it. It saves them an expensive trip to the city dump, so they are really happy I'll take it. I let most piles of it sit for a year before I use it, and by then, the bottom of the pile is starting to break down into black gold. I turn it with the tractor before I spread it on the daylily beds. I'm hoping the trees under the lines are safer than regular homeowner trees, because they are on the right of way, meaning nobody is spraying anything there. Most around here are elm, cottonwood or cedar, so those are good for mulch.
Porkpal, after my experience with the purchased topsoil, I won't ever buy it again. I will buy compost that is from horse stalls if it is properly aged. Even that sometimes has me worried, though, because there are 3 horse vets/hospitals within a mile of me, and I think the compost guy gets a lot of his compost from them. Who knows what kind of chemicals have been used there....
Best bet is my own compost tumblers. I am very very fortunate that the previous owners of my property never bothered to fertilize or spread weed killer, or even to plant grass, so I have native soil and native grasses, dating all the way back to when Indians lived here. We did find pottery shards when we dug a new septic tank, so I think this was a native campground at one time. I wonder if our creek had clear water back in the 1850s?
