Wow, this site has been here for 11 years. Every complaint under the sun and not one real solution to the problem of companies like HD and Lowes getting by with selling trash for what they call "Top Soil". I own a resort where we have no less than 2 acres of landscaped flower beds and 80 foot trees. I have been buying "top soil" from the two companies mentioned as well as from Walmart and one or two feed stores. I realize that top soil is not garden or potting soil, but I have been using it for planting and bedding material for over 35 years. I have gotten buy with using it in a mix of approximately 1/2 topsoil, 1/3 cow manure, one or two 2 lb coffee cans of peat moss and a can or two of vermiculite. This has given me tremendous success in planting everything from maple trees and crepes to using it to "enrich" the soil around a bulb. I have seen a great deviance in quality of "Top Soils", but have never seen anything like is being offered over the last 6 months. I usually buy 40 - 80 bags at a time, several times a year. I have used some for filling holes and dispersing it over soil that needs a little help with creating runners in the likes of Bermuda. But it is mostly used as stated above. In the last 4 months I have never experienced a "top soil" that has actually tainted the surrounding soil to a point that you cannot even grow a rye seed mix with fescue in it. Everything it touches gets killed or at least strained to the point of withering away. At first, I thought it might be one lot of soil that came in, but subsequent lots were contaminated as well. If you go back an read one lady's complaint about her Top soil smelling like gas, it tells me that the main problem with today's soil has been around for sometime. It has been mentioned that decomposition of manure and products like moss, or wood shavings may play a roll. Maybe so, but I suggest all you have to do is to wonder what is happening to the thousands of miles of road surface that has been hauled away during the repaving of our black top roads? Could it be that the petroleum odor is coming from ground up tar. Same color and everything. Most important, have you ever seen grass seed grow on the blacktop surface? Poor a little oil over your fresh seed and see if it grows. One final observation. Someone said to cut open the bags and let them dry out. Try it with todays "Top Soil" and you will end up with a brick. I used some to freshen up my Xmas poinsettias. When it dried, water would not penetrate it. When customer service was approached and aske to take it back, the answer was the same as it was years ago. Bring it back in the bag it came in and they will refund it. Right!! Beware, the "topsoil" you may be buying today is not suitable for use in a planting mix. I doubt you will be able to use it with out your skin burning and your nose running. I wish I had an alternative. Lowes did.....buy the mix already in the bag at a cost of 3 - 4 times the cost of today's Top soil. Captainjim

rhizo and softmentor, thank you both for your input about the mulching. I've just finished mulching my little citrus area with pine bark mulch, so it would be too late to remove all the mulch now. What I did was I left 1-2 ft around the trunk area bare and hope that will help to prevent root rot. Before the whole area was filled with weeds. There's a golden rain tree in the neighbor's yard that overhangs. It keeps sending seeds that sprout like crazy. I was too tired to fight with them and of course other assortment of agressive weeds which was the reason for my idea of mulching. Yes, rhizo, I'm weary of the fungus infection. I'll certainly take note to avoid overwatering from now on. The only problem here in Fl is sometimes we do get very wet rainy season that rains for days on end like at the present time. Softmentor, you must have an incredible variety of citrus trees. 100 trees is a lot of trees. Are you growing all of them for a hobby? I wish I have that much land to grow that many. At the moment, I have 14 different kinds of citrus (5 of them are lemon/lime) and I have 3-4 spots left to plant orange trees. What would you recommend for my planting zone? I prefer those I can make juice out of and of course are disease resistant. Thanks again for any help you can offer.

If you want the whole story about cocoa mulch here is the link to the story. Read the whole thing...especially under the heading "origins". Home Depot is now selling a product that has been treated to rid it of the toxic chemicals...etc. Here is a link that might be useful: more on cocoa mulch

They do sell cocoa mulch, it does smell like chocolate, and it does contain theobromine (the substance in chocolate that's deadly for some dogs). This is one of the few internet-spread scares that's actually true. I attached a link to the snopes.com website article on this subject. mboston, I wasn't aware of this hazard and really appreciate you posting about it! I've been trying different mulches (LOVE the melaleuka mulch!) and cocoa mulch is something I can see myself trying. I have a dog who is a chocolate fanatic, with a history of ripping open Christmas packages, unzipping briefcases and unsnapping guest's luggage to ferret out a piece of chocolate. I'm so glad I've been warned about this mulch! Thank you! Kate Here is a link that might be useful: Snopes.com on Cocoa Mulch