If you intend to go "into" gardening seriously - and have the land and planting area to work with - it is best to find ways to "make" your own.

I realize that we have been raising our own food for some time now, but over the years, it became necessary to dispose of the plants and trimmings that were generated each year.

About 15 years ago, I fell heir to a great shredder/mulcher (Kemp - not made anymore), which has been a real work horse over the years. I can shred very find material, pile it up, water, keep damp and heated, and it makes wonderful compost in a very short period of time. It has been a wonderful growing material, and I no longer need to purchase any garden soil.

These shredders, unfortunately, are quite expensive and some are less efficient.

However, some folks have had good success with the mulch/compost that is usually offered at their local land fills free - but I have no knowledge of them. My only thought is that it may contain materials such as perhaps (pesticides/herbicides) that I prefer not to have in my planting soil.

If I had access to lots of leaves, grass, weeds, etc. (fine material, easily composted, I would gather as much as possible and try to compost it somewhat - then add good potting soil on top of it to plant in. The lower material will decay over time, adding to the existing volume.

With some of my early box form beds, I dug down a foot or 2, added a lot of compostable material first, then several inches of good plantable soil. It seemed to have worked well, and gave me a head start on gardening. Now, of course, I am making compost piles all of the time, from gleanings - my own, without the need of outside and possibly unknown content of land fills or purchased soils.

Just my 2 c's.

Bejay

Some communities have free compost for its residents.
If in your community the come and get fall leaves, brushes, then they must have a place to mulch/compost them

But it that is not the case and you do not have time to make your own garden soil you have to find some bulk seller, and depending on the size of your garden get several cubic yard. Before devivery go and look at the quality of what they have. Some compost are mostly mulch,
meanin they have lots of big chunks of limbs. So you wan some screened compost for veggie garden.

ONE MORE: you did not mention what kind of native soil
you have. With good native soil you can mix amendments with,
or haul some from another place in your property and dump it in the beds.

I paid about $25 for a yard of topsoil, and I paid $40 for good quality compost. The topsoil got used in a raised bed. It was weed-free and good quality.

Hauling the stuff is an issue. If you are having it delivered, it will cost more. I think my sister was paying about $100 a load, two and a half yards, to have her landscaping people deliver 'organic topsoil' for her raised beds. It was a good deal. She built 12 or more raised beds with about 5 loads of soil.

I do recommend using store-bought soil to give your gardening a jump-start. I spent the weekend scalping sod and adding compost to about 50sf of lawn. It was back breaking work.

Here in central Mn we can get delivered ten yard load of sifted blackdirt and composted manure for $150
prices are very regional though so check around

Here in Central Texas, an hour north of Austin I paid $30 a yard for 'garden mix' (soil mixed with compost and some other stuff to help loosen it up).

Turkey compost is $30 a yard, delivery is free with a 7 yard minimum...lol, not sure I can use 7 yards of turkey compost but I also don't have a truck....

I've been burned once on this, always inspect before you have anything delivered. I got a load of soil that turned into concrete with the first rain. Hard lesson to learn...

I agree with armymomma. You have to look at topsoil and ask what's in it. Around here topsoil can range from sand mixed with some manure to a sandy loam base mixed with a quality range of amendments. Price does not represent quality.

Zeuspaul

My neighbor, who is a Master Gardener, told me about a local landscape company where she buys topsoil. I bought 10 yards of screened topsoil mixed with compost (50:50) and it cost me $38 a yard including delivery.

I brought in a sample of it to the cooperative extension to be tested (it was very good) and they said that company is known to sell good quality topsoil and compost. This is what I used to fill my raised beds.

It seems like a lot of money, but the soil in my yard is like concrete. It would take years and a lot of backache to break it up with a pickaxe and amend with compost until it could support life. Now I have beautiful, loose, black soil in raised beds that my plants love! Even carrots grow long and straight! Well worth every penny.

Maybe you can go to your cooperative extension and ask for a recommendation.

I'm in zone 5 NY and i paid $250 for a dump load delievered which was about 6 ft high and 10 ft around. It was pretty good dirt but alot of weeds have grown out of it over time. I need to get another load this year as I'm building one those greenhouses out of old windows and my ground is 60% rock.

I have a pick-em-up truck and shovel. I asked the local cemetery about getting their dirt and they were fine and even grateful. The cost was about 50¢ per cubic yard; had I been closer or I had a truck that got better ga-s mil-eage, it would have been less!

Mike

Too bad I had to add hyphens to ga-s and mil-eage to keep links from being added, links I may not condone.