Try your local landscape suppliers - listed in the yellow pages, or ask friendly people at your local nurseries. They can deliver mulch by the cubic metre. You won't need a trailer - they'll just dump it on your drive or lawn, and it is shovel and wheelbarrow time from therein. You might also be able to get something from your local council if they recycle  always worth checking.

What to choose depends a lot on what you have planted and whether you will be needing to dig again. For example, a lot of the homemaker TV shows use large pebbles these days. It looks funky (if you like that kind of thing) but make things really difficult if you decide to move a plant, or put in more. Likewise itÂs a little hard to spread compost or manure around your plants if there is a layer of permanent pebbles! Plus very expensive.

Things like wood chip are a middle option  fairly long lasting but not as dramatic OR expensive as pebbles. With delivery, you are probably looking at anywhere between $70 and $100 per cubic metre, depending on where you get it.

Finally the more organic options like sugar cane, lucerne etc are worth looking at. They are cheaper but won't last as long (such is the trade off I guess!) But they add nutrients to your soil as they break down, and you have far better flexibility to move plants, put in new ones etc. If you are worried about weeds popping through, a few layers of newspaper underneath really helps. You can bring it home a few bales at a time, or some of the larger centres will lend or hire a trailer to you.

If you are just starting out in this garden, IÂd reckon this is the best option for now. It is the cheapest and most flexible, and will improve your soil. Then you can always go for something more permanent in a year or two.

just dont forget to put a tarp or some plastic down where the bulk mulch will be dumped to help with clean up
you could also ask the neighbours if they need to mulch and can help reduce costs buy sharing!

Thanks for the replies :) It's good to know I have lots of options to consider. I have a roughly 10x10 garden, which means 1 cubic metre (gasp!) might not be enough. So I do think it's time for me to also think of groundcovers and others to make the bed more varied.

Oh, with mulch (I have a native garden setup with some non-natives in certain places...I noticed the botanical gardens use wood chips - but I'm not sure if it's pine), I also have some self-seeded annuals (gazania, cosmos etc), and bulbs (daffodils etc) . How do you mulch over them this way? Do I wait until the annuals have grown quite large (but this defeats the purpose of using mulch as a weed suppresser), or mulch over them anyway (will they grow through thick mulch?).