Cal Blend Soils

Cal Blend Soils gets 5 stars for their knowledge, customer service, and delivery. All went smoothly, as promised. I ordered soils for reseeding my lawn, for a California native plant garden, and for a raised bed garden. With their advice, I picked the right soils and mulches. I am very satisfied with their products and professionalism.

This place is great. They have a great selection of soils. They answered my questions about soil types and composting, plus they deliver. Needless to say I will go back.

The organic soil is bogus. I suspect it’s excavated from some basement and then mixed with a scoop of organic miracle grow. It is awful stuff with more of a gravel appearance when it is wet down. Won’t grow veggies. It hardens up with water, even when amended with compost. Steer clear and don’t throw your $ 120 away like I did.

After looking all over for great big chunky bark chips I stumbled on this place. They had very reasonable prices for this hard-​to-​find product, and Irma (Erma?) in customer service was GREAT and really helpful on the phone. What I really appreciated was that unlike EVERY OTHER place I have ever ordered a large item delivered from, they actually LISTENED when I explained that I live atop a narrow, winding street and a big truck wouldn’t fit. Within two days they had sent a truck that was just the right size, and their super-​friendly and helpful driver had dropped it off right where I wanted it. The whole experience was painless, relatively inexpensive, and fast. I will definitely be ordering more from them in the future, instead of making ten trips to Home Depot or whatever.

UPDATE: Cal Blends went out of their way to win me back as a satisfied customer. Their customer service team could not have been more helpful, and I would not hesitate to work with them again in the future.
I purchased 4 cubic yards of «garden mix» from Cal Blends and had it delivered in October. I used the soil for my winter vegetable seedlings; kale, chard, lettuce, mustard greens, etc. Nothing grew. Nothing. At first I thought it was not enough hours of sun? (these planters are in a new location). I put a few of the chard seedlings into a pot with another brand of potting soil right next to the planters of dying seedlings in Cal Blend and they grew very well. I STILL would not have believed that the Cal Blends soil was to blame (who sells soil that kills your plants?) except for the other reviewer who had the same experience. That is why I am posting this review. I am an experienced gardener and I thought I that I must have done something terribly wrong to loose my entire winter crop, plus everything else that i amended with the CB soil. I am one unhappy customer, waiting to hear how they intend to make this right. Refunding my money would help…

Minus one for the insanely rude receptionist in the office. We came to run an errand for my uncle, who is a regular here. We asked for red bark chips and she snapped at us and said, «You mean gorilla fuzz?» with an attitude. We said sure, since we described it and she again got snarky and insisted we call it gorilla fuzz. We take the ticket to one of the loaders and he comes back with mossy-​looking stuff, which is not what we ordered. It took three tries to get what we were asking for, thanks to her.
Thankfully, the man loading it was insanely helpful and friendly and didn’t lose his patience with us. He let us know where to back up the truck and made sure we were getting what we wanted. A+ for him being awesome!

This place is a gardeners dream come true. I told them what I was planting and they created a custom blend of soil just for me and my picky plants.
I have ordered soil in the past from other places and it’s a total crap shoot, you never know what you’re really going to get, the guy dumps it on your property and drives off leaving you with a pile of junk.
When the soil arrived from Cal Blend I was blown away. It is sooooo much better than I imagined. The staff is incredibly friendly and the driver was professional and pleasant. I will order from them again and again. I love this place.

I always get my products for landscape here, costumer service is excellent, Irma and the rest of the team!!! five stars.

Follow Up Review
After leaving 1-​star, I was contacted by Nancy and Mike (owner). Mike visited and examined the soil and my plants with yellow leaves. He offered a bag of Nitrogen to address the yellow leave issue. I applied the Nitrogen to every single plants in the raised bed. More than one week passed, the yellow leaves started turning a little green. However, the plants has aged so much, they missed the growth period. I got rid of most of them, then planted new vegetables with the Nitrogen. After another week, the new vegetables seem to grow normally. The result confirmed the soil I purchased from CalBlend was missing Nitrogen. The question is why the soil delivered to me was missing Nitrogen? Do they have quality control? I missed most of the growing season for summer vegetables. Wasted my time and money. Who will cover my loss? Plus every time I plant I have to add Nitrogen.
I purchased garden soil numerous time from Homedepot, why they NEVER had any issue? I do not need to add Nitrogen (Nitrogen might have been mixed with the soil).
I give 4-​star to appreciate the owner’s visit and offered a temp solution. I could have given 5-​star if the solution is complete and my loss is addressed.
Original Review
Having looked at the two 5-​star review, I ordered 5-​yard Garden Mix With Bio Start recommended by Calblend for my organic vegetable garden. The soil was delivered in a truck load. My initial impression was really positive — looks and smells really good. Specially the smells — it has nice mulch scent. I moved the soil to my raised bed which has newly built PVC irrigation system. After thoroughly watering the soil for one week, I planted the same purchased plants, tomato, cucumber, pepper, cilantro, watermelon, squash. Since I grow these vegetables every year, I know how to grow them well. Every year, I harvest lots of them. After a few days I noticed my squash leaves turned yellow. I thought maybe the fertilizer mixed in was not enough, I added adequate quantity bought from homedepot. The yellowish continues. Then I noticed cucumber and watermelon also turned slight yellow. Hundreds of small mushroom started to grow in the soil. The worst of all, after three weeks, none of my vegetables grow much! I spent four hand bucks on the soil delivered and they do not grow vegetables. It is a complete waste. I bought different garden or vegetable soil from Home Depot over the years, my vegetables always grow well. It is my bad choice to buy soil from Calblend!

Cal Blend Soil rocks! No pun intended. They know their dirt. If you have a yard you will need them sooner or later.

Great company! Quality soil sold in bulk l, I just roll up in my truck and leave with a bed full of soil. Love this place.

They have the best hours manure compost blend! my vegetables grow so well and it inproves the flavor!