Kelly, after checking out the Raleigh Yard Waste website
http://www.raleigh-nc.org/sws/ywctr.htm mentioned by a subsequent poster, I
thought of one difference, at least. Even though it may be only an
aesthetic difference: although the mulch I got from Bradsher's is labelled
"triple shredded hardwood mulch," my understanding is that it is *bark* --
and that makes a big difference in the way it looks. The stuff starts out
dark brown and stays dark brown until it disintegrates. According to the
website above, the wood chips are made from ground-up oak pallets. I
believe that I've read in the past that the stuff starts out looking okay,
but can get rather disgusting-looking after it's exposed to the elements.

I think there may also be a difference in the way the wood chips interact
with the soil, similar to the reason for not using fresh sawdust for
ulch -- naturally, I can't remember why you're not supposed to use
sawdust, but it never mattered to me since I was unlikely to find myself
with a lot of it around!

Anne Lurie
NE Raleigh

"Kelly Garner" wrote

Aside from the obvious benefit of having it delivered, what's the
difference between mulch
from a private company versus mulch from say Chapel Hill or Raleigh solid
waste services?