Remove as much bark as you can if you do that...it seems like the pore space it adds would be good, but too much of it just traps and ties up nutrients.

You don't have to pick over and get every little piece, but you don't want a layer of it.

Around here They sell top soil by cubic yard. It is just good old soil not compost. They sell , of course compost too.
If your garden soil is not too clay or too sandy, you do not need to add more soil, but perhaps some good compost, manure, fall leases, well broken pine needles,turn them over/mix/till let it sit and winter.
Soil is just a medium to hold nutrients and right amount of water for plants roots.What is soil? It is mostly fine stone dust mixed with organic mater = roted/composted plants parts.

For best and quick results you can run your mower over the leaves/needle with all chuts closed. This way the worms can finish them much faster.

The "soil" sold in bags if generally crap. I gave up on bagged soil...it isn't even top soil from what I can tell.

They sell bulk top soil by the dump truck load that seems to be OK.

I just dig up some soil from one part of the garden, amend it and use it where needed.

most of them have those slow releasing extra stuff in them, like the miracle gro, that is why i am tempted to buy one even though there are plenty soil in the garden already.

they even have special garden soil just for plants and vegetables.

how many of you buy them?

What is the condition of your soil? Sand, clay....?

not sandy or clay, that is for sure, just regular soil.

last year, everything was growing so well. but this year, i put sluggo plus, fertilizer bought from walmart, and manure, some vegetables just died in the middle of the summer.

so i am thinking maybe if i put on the good garden soil, things will improve.

Did you dig the manure and fertilizer into your soil or just lay it on top and then plant. Both manure and fertilizer will burn plants and roots but mixing it with the soil it won't.

The best thing you can amend the soil with is compost but mix it in too. If you have good soil there is no way I'd truck in top soil. You may end up with worse soil than you have.

The sloggo plus is for bugs and shouldn't be mixed in

well, i had a huge pillbug problem earlier, so i thought that i buy the cheap manure for 98 cents, and cover the whole area, those bugs will die. but it didn't happen.

then some plants started to die. so i bought walmart fertilizer, and spread them, they seemed to be working for a while, but the pillbugs were still going strong.

so i finally bought the slugo plus.

by that time, some plants were already growing pretty big, so i can't dig the soil and turn the soil upside down, so that is why i just spread those things on top of each other.

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so has anyone ever bought garden soil to spread them on your existing garden soil at all?

Maybe the manure had herbicide in it. Check out the link.

Here is a link that might be useful: herbicide in manure

I'm sorry to hear about your garden getting burned. I am always suspicious of store bought manure and how well it has been composted. Some of it stinks so bad, I'm sure it has not been composted enough to put straight in the garden.

If you can get horse manure from a stable, that is often a good amendment, and stables are more than happy to get rid of it. I get mine from my parents house where we keep all the family horses and I pull it from the back of the pile after it has been turned over. Some of it is 5-7 years old and very well composted. I have side dressed with it and mixed it with potting mix before planting (I use containers) and it has been fine.

Ania