Could call up several nurseries in the area and ask for their recommendation on who to buy the soil from. I'm pretty sure I read that plenty of places offer garden ready soil which is a mix of like top soil, manure, and compost or whatever.

I recently made my 5th raised bed, a 4 xe 5 ft unit made for garlic next year.
Filled it with top soil from a local supplier, 10, 5 gal pails of mushroom manure, and about 5, 5gal buckets of fresh compost.
Going to mix it up with a tiller, then screen all larger objects, that'll take some work.
This is how I filled my raised bed
Jimmy

marc, you can be a smart consumer of top soil just like anything else. Call around, ask questions,find out where the source of the top soil is, ask of any tests have been done. I've brought in terrific soil over the years, most recently here in Alabama. They delivered some of the nicest sandy loam I've ever seen. They promised me that it would be 'clean' (no rocks, rubbish, or roots) and it was.

On another note, I once purchased a truckload of top soil from a seemingly reputable supplier.
Would not grow anything, weeds wouldn't grow in it either.It looked like really nice soil, eventually I used it for fill.
By all means the above post says much

See if you can find an independently owned garden center that makes up a custom blend. In my teeny tiny town, the little garden center makes a special blend for filling raised beds that includes high quality topsoil, leaf compost and composted cow manure. It's excellent stuff!

That is why leaves, collected at curbside, beat anything. It is not the supplier's fault if people put pesticides on their lawns or fields, and then the organic matter is used to produce compost. With leaves one has a good chance of getting them clean.

I made the mistake of ordering "topsoil" here in No. Va. It turned out to be the red clay that is so prevalent here.

Now I order a compost and sand mixture. It's wonderful. I have them put it all in one load and when they dunp it's pretty well mixed.

At the end of winter I order leaf compost from our county and it is also great.

Cindy

my experience if you buy in soil, you really have no history on the soil, you have no idea where it originated and what has been added along the way.

we are currently using our own top soil, but prefer mushroom compost from the farm. never any worries and at around $1AUD a 16k bag or $55AUD for a 1 tonne bag it is affordable.

len

Here is a link that might be useful: lens straw bale garden

Our county landfill has certified organic soil mixes for a decent price. I think about 20 a truckload.
I've had great luck with it.
We are in a very Ag/organic area. Nancy